Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990                   TAG: 9007240215
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGHER MILK PRICES LIKELY

Continuing dry weather in the large dairy-producing area of the Midwest is the reason.

The price paid for milk in the Midwest provides the base for prices paid for milk in other parts of the country.

An apparent shortage of milk in the Midwest has boosted prices there by $2 a hundredweight from a year ago, said Jerry Jones, a dairy specialist with the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service at Virginia Tech.

In response to that increase, the Virginia Milk Commission has boosted the price Virginia dairymen get for their milk by $1.50 per hundredweight, or roughly 13 cents per gallon.

The 9 percent increase means that farmers in Western Virginia will be getting $18.26 per hundred pounds for their milk. Farmers in Eastern Virginia get 30 cents more and in Southwest Virginia 20 cents less. The highest price ever paid for milk to Virginia farmers was $19.66 per hundredweight in February.

Consumers generally pay 1 cent more for a gallon of milk for each 10-cent increase in the hundredweight price paid to farmers, The Associated Press reported. By that rule, consumers should expect to see a 15-cent increase in the price of a gallon of milk.

Other factors playing into a price increase in Virginia are the normal decline in state milk production during the hot summer months and a drop in the number of milk cows in the state.

Moreover, Jones said Virginia cows have produced an average of 150 pounds less milk this year than at the same time last year. He thinks that production drop may be due to a decline in the quality of feed grown on Virginia farms last year and fed to cattle this year.

Virginia's milk production has dropped between 1 percent and 2 percent during the past year, as has been the case in many Southeastern states, said John Miller, executive director of the Virginia State Dairymen's Association. Heat stress can cause another 5 percent drop, he said.

When temperatures go above 85 degrees and the humidity is high, it can cause production to drop, Jones said. Production is down now but not any more than usual for this time of year, he said.

Compounding the supply-and-demand picture is an increase in per-capita milk consumption in Virginia this year of about 1 percent, which also can have an upward influence on prices.