A TikToker and cow caretaker who goes by Iowa Dairy Farmer (@iowadairyfarmer) recently uploaded a viral clip. In it, he explains why there’s a massive price difference between one brand of milk and Walmart’s Great Value brand.
He said that it basically boils down to the size of the dairy farms in question. TikTokers had their own commentary on whether or not pricier milk options were worth it, too.
Why so much?
The Iowa Dairy Farmer’s video begins with a stitched clip from a concerned Walmart customer. The patron wanted to know how the retailer’s Great Value Brand could be so much cheaper than Prairie Farms’ offerings. In contrast, Walmart’s brand costs $2.66 per gallon, whereas Prairie Farms sells its half a gallon for $3.96.
“How can you pay less money and get twice as much?” he asks. “Why would anybody buy Prairie Farms. Is there a difference? I’m asking a serious question.”
At this point in the clip, the dairy farmer explains why this is the case. The video transitions to him walking inside of a barn that houses cows.
“There’s one big caveat in the answer to this question,” he states before delving into the price differences.
First, the Prairie Farms half-gallon in question contained whole milk, while the Great Value one was skim. Typically, higher fat-content milk tend to cost more money, he says.
“The whole milk will always cost more, there’s more in it,” he explains. “There’s more fat in it, there’s more nutrients in and goodies there.”
However, he does concede that Prairie Farms’ milk is more expensive than Great Value’s. That’s even if you measure whole-on-whole. He shares that all of the milk he gets from cows on his property goes to Prairie Farms. Additionally, he prefaces his messaging by stating that he’s not going to “trash” milk from other dairy farmers.
Small farm support
The Dairy Farmer concedes that he’s “biased” towards Prairie Farms because it’s his milk they’re selling. After all, the more people buy Prairie Farms products, the more money he’ll earn. Despite this conflict of interest, he does state that the company operates differently than other milk brands. And it’s that Prairie Farms’ “herd size is significantly smaller.” The number of cows producing batches of milk for the company, he adds, is anywhere from 120 to 150 cows.
Folks who care about supporting smaller, family-owned businesses will probably pick Prairie Farms over Great Value.
“So when you buy Prairie Farms milk, on average, you’re supporting smaller, family owned farms,” he says. Again, he clarifies that he’s not trying to paint “large farms” as villains before explaining more.
He states that Prairie Farms isn’t interested in purchasing “excess” milk supplies, either. In fact, that business pays him less per gallon of milk once he reaches a certain threshold. “So they don’t pick up more than they need,” which means he gets a “better pay price.”
A reason to buy Prairie Farms
Continuing with his video, the farmer lists why some people may want to buy milk from Prairie Farms. And it boils down to a consumer philosophy: do you want to buy dairy from “many small farms?” Or would you rather support “one or two big farms” instead?
Nevertheless, he adds that he can’t confidently say the nutritional value of milk from smaller farms is any better. Moreover, the farmer also mentions that both large and small dairy farms operate in similar ways. Ultimately, it all boils down to what type of business models you’d like to support.
“If you like the concept of more smaller farms. And you would rather support farms like mine, you can buy Prairie Farms,” he says.
But if you do opt for more affordable Great Value products, that doesn’t mean you can’t know which farm it’s from.
“But you can still know your farms even if you buy the lower price Great Value option. You can look up where the label is,” he shares. “Which plant that milk came from. Look on the code, and you can see. Maybe it came from this one in Wisconsin and find out which farm shipped to that plant.”
TikTokers were divided
One commenter thought that the only dissimilarity between Prairie Farms and Great Value Milk was advertising. “The difference is marketing. The store brand doesn’t have or need a marketing budget,” one said.
The other remarked that the differences between the two brands were glaring. “Why is my fully loaded Mercedes more expensive than my base model Kia?” they said.
However, someone else thinks that smaller farms with fewer cows ultimately means happier animals. Consequently, those happier bovines will produce better milk. “I’m just going to say if you’re a dairy farmer and you have 10 cows those 10 cows will be cared for far better than a huge corporate farm with 500 cows,” they said.
One person said they buy Prairie Farms just because it tastes better. “I love prairie farms milk,” they wrote. “It’s hard for me to find but I pay the extra money cause I personally think the white milk and chocolate milk tastes better then any other brand.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Prairie Farms, Walmart, and the Iowa Dairy Farmer via email for further comment.
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