September 12, 2005

US's Mississippi dairy industry hit hard by Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina has hit the dairy industry in Mississippi State hard, as local dairy farmers and processors suffered significant losses without electricity to produce milk, reports said.

The hurricane had reportedly devastated Mississippi's highest populated dairy areas, Walthall, Marion and Lincoln.

An analyst said many local producers were forced to dump milk produced by their cows for four to five days, due to loss of electrical power.

In the wake of the hurricane, several producers have reportedly sold their cattle and closed their dairy operations, because of difficulty getting feed and their inability to milk the cows.

While some producers switched to generators when the power went down, it was only a short term relief as they could not run the generators to milk cows and sufficiently cool the milk. Also, fuel supplies needed to run the generators were scarce in the state.

Reports indicated there might be cows injured from flying debris and some dairy cattle might also experience long-term health issues related to the hurricane.

Meanwhile, a local farmer did not expect domestic milk prices to be affected as the pricing system was national, and the state's milk production was not significant enough.