I don't get around to as many forums as I did when DG was smaller, but this morning I took the time to stop by the Farm Life Forum. There is a very interesting thread about milk prices... what is paid to the farmers, and what we are charged as consumers. There are several DG members who are small dairy farmers and their input gives me a sense of both sides of the price of milk.
Quoting:
We are in the Mideast Order 33, a federal milk marketing order. Our price has gone from $21 a hundredweight last January (2008) to $15 in December. I can't tell you what January 2009 is yet as we haven't gotten that check, but I can tell you while we were losing more than 25% of our pay price we were paying 25% more for feed, 50% more for fuel and 33% more for fertilizers and lime. And the fuel and fertilizer percentages would be higher, but we cut back usage as much as possible.
Kathleen posted later that their February 2009 base price was $12.24 per hundred pounds. That's about $1 a gallon.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/951584/