Just months after seeing record high prices for raw milk, dairy farmers in South Dakota and elsewhere are seeing prices cut in half.

Prices on the Chicago Board of Trade for the most common grade of milk were about $9.50 per hundred weight this past week. They topped out near $20 per hundred pounds last year.

Mark Leddy is chief executive of Valley Queen Cheese in Milbank. He says the economic downturn has contributed to declining milk prices.

But also contributing is a significant drop in foreign exports. New Zealand and Australia -- both major players in the global milk market -- suffered through a drought in 2006. That prompted U.S. dairy farmers to pick up that business, but those countries have since bounced back.