A mild winter could impact your grocery bill in a positive way

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) — With winter around the corner, local dairy farmers are getting ready as a mild winter may benefit the industry.

Many weather experts including our WHSV First Alert Storm Team are predicting a mild winter this year. This means more money might stay in your pocket at the grocery store when you are looking to buy milk.

Tim Liskey, owner and operator of Monta Vista, Inc. in Rockingham County, said winters can mean several different things for his cows.

“If it’s really cold, they will eat more... drives my cost up because I have to take good care of them. But then also if the extreme cold temperatures... it’s a fluctuation in weather, then they can actually decrease in production with that drastic change in weather,” said Liskey.

This means mild winters with fewer temperature changes tend to keep milk prices down.

“Then the farmer might have less cost in the product, then he might pass that savings on a little bit to entice them to buy more product,” said Liskey.

This past week’s weather is an example of what farmers don’t want to see, considering temperatures were in the 40′s on Tuesday and around 70 on Friday.

“If it’s a colder winter, they have more expenses and they have to offset that, so hopefully the consumer is willing to pay for that,” said Liskey.

The fall tends to bring more dramatic swings in temperatures so once winter is here to stay, it will give an indication of what the dairy market will look like.

Copyright 2020 WHSV. All rights reserved.