Converting to cheese adds another layer of costs, these farmers are already refusing to sell basic milk because of low market demand. In a free market they’d take any price above zero to defray overhead, but with “other people’s money” dumping is the easiest option.
You may be too young to know this but when I was a kid, the government bought up milk and made butter and cheese for the low income crowd. Also, peanut butter and honey. If there was an excess, which there usually was, anyone could come by the office and get some. That was the best cheese ever.
The schools got tons of peanut butter so we had some sort of peanut butter on our lunch trays every day (no one died of peanut allergies). The lunch ladies would make big pb cookies, put pb and honey in a little Dixie cups for apple slices. Honey in Dixie cups for their heavenly yeast rolls. Or just a blob of pb on the tray.
If it was done then, it can be done again.
Farmers get government subsidies for everything under the sun.