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Wisconsin dairy farmers barely hanging on as crisis deepens

Phys251

Phys251

Purge evil with Justice
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...sin-barely-hanging-crisis-deepens/2112841002/

For many farmers, the price they've received for their milk hasn't covered their expenses. Some have lost thousands of dollars a month, and there’s not much relief in sight as the marketplace is flooded with the commodity they produce.

Wisconsin is on track to lose more dairy farms this year than in any year since at least 2003, according to state Agriculture Department figures for dairy producer licenses.
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Seems that there is an unfortunate trend of fewer and fewer dairy farms, and that this trend has been remarkably independent of who's been president.

My question is how some of these farmers are going to exit the industry without losing everything.
 
People do not drink as much milk and California became the #1 dairy state. Those little 500 to 600 acre Wisconsin dairy farms became economically non-viable a few decades ago and only can continue by increasingly being propped up by the government - just like mom-and-pop stores lost out to the big companies.
 
Phys251 said:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...sin-barely-hanging-crisis-deepens/2112841002/



Seems that there is an unfortunate trend of fewer and fewer dairy farms, and that this trend has been remarkably independent of who's been president.

My question is how some of these farmers are going to exit the industry without losing everything.
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I wonder if bovine growth hormone is the cause of the oversupply of milk on the market. As I remember it was legalized because the big commercial dairy industry wanted it, not the individual family run dairy farmers.
 
U.S. President Donald Trump demanded concessions from the protected Canadian dairy industry and said on Twitter that Canada was hurting U.S. farmers with high tariffs. After Canada gave some ground, Trump claimed a big victory and said farmers would have more export options. But Canada opened less than 4 percent of its dairy market to U.S. farmers - a concession unlikely to make much of a dent in U.S. oversupply or improve the lot of farmers like Fritsche, producers on both sides of the border say.
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But .... the Art of the Deal! MAGA!
 
Phys251 said:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...sin-barely-hanging-crisis-deepens/2112841002/



Seems that there is an unfortunate trend of fewer and fewer dairy farms, and that this trend has been remarkably independent of who's been president.

My question is how some of these farmers are going to exit the industry without losing everything.
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Some of this is due to the GOP control of the Wisconsin government. What they have allowed is the huge factory farms which milk thousands of cows at a time. They also pollute the ground water and suck up what is left. Thousands of cows create huge amounts of manure that has to be spread on near by land. Some of this goes straight into the ground water. they also require huge amounts of water. One local farm will use over 40 high capacity wells to insure water sources for both the cows and for feed production. This will take the water supply away for miles around. This was not allowed until the GOP took control of the government and changed the laws. You ask how this relates to the reduction in the number of farms, small family farms can not compete with these farms and go out of business. The huge increase in farm failures in the past year though is caused by Trump's tariff war which reduced the market for milk.
 
Rogue Valley said:
But .... the Art of the Deal! MAGA!
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What, you mean 4% of the Canadian milk market (servicing a population 10% your size) ISN'T going to save American dairy producers? Well I, for one, am shocked - it's not like Canada was screaming that from the ****ing mountaintops. Oh wait, we were.

Combine that with the fact that today's GM North American plant closure information shows more jobs lost in America than in Canada, and I'm guessing that if you don't have people wishing ol' Dump would have left NAFTA alone now, you will soon enough.
 
I thought the stupid milk war was supposed to fix all that. Someone just tell the dairy farmers that Orange Julius will fix it right up for them.
 
tres borrachos said:
This makes me very sad to read.
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Makes me more than a little scared.

Just read the news about GM cutting 15,000 jobs. And of course more bad news in Wisconsin as the controversial Foxconn is going to take all the bribe money Scott Walker gave them but deliver thousands fewer jobs than promised and in 2019 even cut jobs ... so no idea what the net gain might be for all that money we gave them, if there is a net gain. Need to turn off the news and go hug someone.




Our government isn't supposed to be stirring the pot increasing insecurity in insecure times. But we have no idea how many more shoes Trump has to throw at us before we're able to look around and assess the damaged landscape and see what our best chances are for survival.
 
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They're winning, they just don't know it. Trust the stable genius with the very big brain and the best words.





In other words, I do have compassion for those farmers who might have voted D this time around. I am finding it more or less impossible to find compassion for liars and idiots whose political goal is to **** me and the left over whenever and wherever possible.
 
Hummmm....Smallish diary farms struggling this side of the Canadian border. You mean dairy farms that are similar to farms protected in the Canadian diary industry which is widespread by need more than anything else. Hummmm....Who would of thunk it?
 
Phys251 said:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...sin-barely-hanging-crisis-deepens/2112841002/



Seems that there is an unfortunate trend of fewer and fewer dairy farms, and that this trend has been remarkably independent of who's been president.

My question is how some of these farmers are going to exit the industry without losing everything.
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A farm with enough land and equipment to run a dairy, can also raise beef cattle.
I think the hard part would be keeping the cattle a part, the dairy breeds are very domesticated,
I have heard that many of the beef cattle, are not so friendly.
My cousin successfully made the transition.
 
joko104 said:
People do not drink as much milk and California became the #1 dairy state. Those little 500 to 600 acre Wisconsin dairy farms became economically non-viable a few decades ago and only can continue by increasingly being propped up by the government - just like mom-and-pop stores lost out to the big companies.
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Must be all the illegal immigrants working at slave wages, as to why they can undercut honest farmers.
 
bearpoker said:
I wonder if bovine growth hormone is the cause of the oversupply of milk on the market. As I remember it was legalized because the big commercial dairy industry wanted it, not the individual family run dairy farmers.
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That's another curious factor. I only by milk labeled as having no hormones. I wonder how many people do the same?
 
OlNate said:
What, you mean 4% of the Canadian milk market (servicing a population 10% your size) ISN'T going to save American dairy producers? Well I, for one, am shocked - it's not like Canada was screaming that from the ****ing mountaintops. Oh wait, we were.

Combine that with the fact that today's GM North American plant closure information shows more jobs lost in America than in Canada, and I'm guessing that if you don't have people wishing ol' Dump would have left NAFTA alone now, you will soon enough.
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Sorry to bother you OlNate, but who is the resident Calgarian around here? I wanted to congratulate them on winning the Grey Cup.
 
If you cant reduce your cost of producing a good, or reduce to the cost of selling your good to increase your revenues and you are becoming obsolete in the market place. Why should we as americans care? It only goes to tell me people don't want to buy your product or that they are buying someone else product for either being better quality or for being cheaper. As a consumer all I want is the highest quality for the cheapest price. If that means corporations go out of business or small mom and pop stores go out of business I could care less, so why should you?
 
joko104 said:
People do not drink as much milk and California became the #1 dairy state. Those little 500 to 600 acre Wisconsin dairy farms became economically non-viable a few decades ago and only can continue by increasingly being propped up by the government - just like mom-and-pop stores lost out to the big companies.
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Sad reality.

Unfortunate. But it is what it is.
 
jdog21 said:
If you cant reduce your cost of producing a good, or reduce to the cost of selling your good to increase your revenues and you are becoming obsolete in the market place. Why should we as americans care? It only goes to tell me people don't want to buy your product or that they are buying someone else product for either being better quality or for being cheaper. As a consumer all I want is the highest quality for the cheapest price. If that means corporations go out of business or small mom and pop stores go out of business I could care less, so why should you?
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You should care because scope and scale are market drivers all their own. Ultimately, if you do not have healthy participants up and down the spectrum instead favoring greater scope and larger scale only because you see inherent cost advantages to you, you end up with cartels and monopolies including large industrial farming and dairy complexes controlling markets sometimes with bought off government acquiescence depending on how much lobbying and graft is going on. That can easily be suggested as a path in food and dairy toward higher chemical and antibiotic use which has direct health implications for you and your family. It should come as no surprise that an over exercised sense of deregulation often accompanies a propensity for big business over all other forms of business and now you should be seeing the problem in a little more depth.

This is also where a complete misunderstanding for how the Federal Government SHOULD work comes into play. If there is a propensity to destroy government agencies or to hobble them beyond all reason then the exact government agency that should be encouraging small farmers toward organics for example as a means to satisfy certain aspects of the market that by nature suggest a smaller going concern than an industrial farm or dairy complex then it is far more likely that smaller going concern just disappears of the face of the planet when in fact there was a market for its wares if it just reconfigured itself a bit and had it a helping hand in guiding it to its customer. A smallish farmer looking out at his fields now surrounded by behemoths on all sides of him is not likely to think past what looks like an immediate threat without some guidance. I don't see Anderson Consulting or BDO going out to help him either in spite of their "we are just here to help" advertising.
 
JustHanging said:
Sorry to bother you OlNate, but who is the resident Calgarian around here? I wanted to congratulate them on winning the Grey Cup.
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Not sure, bud. But if I run into them, I'll pass along your well wishes. I'm an NFL guy myself... lol
 
jnug said:
You should care because scope and scale are market drivers all their own. Ultimately, if you do not have healthy participants up and down the spectrum instead favoring greater scope and larger scale only because you see inherent cost advantages to you, you end up with cartels and monopolies including large industrial farming and dairy complexes controlling markets sometimes with bought off government acquiescence depending on how much lobbying and graft is going on. That can easily be suggested as a path in food and dairy toward higher chemical and antibiotic use which has direct health implications for you and your family. It should come as no surprise that an over exercised sense of deregulation often accompanies a propensity for big business over all other forms of business and now you should be seeing the problem in a little more depth.

This is also where a complete misunderstanding for how the Federal Government SHOULD work comes into play. If there is a propensity to destroy government agencies or to hobble them beyond all reason then the exact government agency that should be encouraging small farmers toward organics for example as a means to satisfy certain aspects of the market that by nature suggest a smaller going concern than an industrial farm or dairy complex then it is far more likely that smaller going concern just disappears of the face of the planet when in fact there was a market for its wares if it just reconfigured itself a bit and had it a helping hand in guiding it to its customer. A smallish farmer looking out at his fields now surrounded by behemoths on all sides of him is not likely to think past what looks like an immediate threat without some guidance. I don't see Anderson Consulting or BDO going out to help him either in spite of their "we are just here to help" advertising.
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Ending up with cartels and monopolies is a fallacy. No company has ever had a monopoly without the government or its government regulators help. People who are willing to stream line there business to provide for a cheaper goods price are a good thing from a consumers stand point. And just because some large corporations are doing it really well and the consumer is rewarding them with purchasing their product shouldn't be seen as a bad thing when in fact its the opposite.
Businesses that lobby is their prerogative but it should be a waste of resources, if government officials are being bought off or giving out special favor because of the lobbying then you have corruption and the focus should be on getting him out of office and replacing with someone who has more morals.
If dairies put higher chemicals and antibiotic in their products that's their business. We should ask our government to make sure that they are letting the public know whats in their product and that they are being truthful, nothing more. If you want that antibiotic chemical infested milk then its your to have, if you want milk that is antibiotic and chemical free then you can choose to pay the higher price for it. If no one is selling that style of milk its because their is no demand for that style, if their is a demand for that style and no is selling it then you have beautiful opportunity to take advantage of it just like other could.
 
jdog21 said:
.... If that means corporations go out of business or small mom and pop stores go out of business I could care less, so why should you?
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You don't care, so why should we?

That's logic for you.



Some consumers care about sustainability. Go figure.
 
Phys251 said:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...sin-barely-hanging-crisis-deepens/2112841002/



Seems that there is an unfortunate trend of fewer and fewer dairy farms, and that this trend has been remarkably independent of who's been president.

My question is how some of these farmers are going to exit the industry without losing everything.
Click to expand...

Fewer cows is exactly what we need, we have long produced more milk than we can use. This is an example of America not working, of the supply/demand theory not working or not being allowed to work.
 
joko104 said:
People do not drink as much milk and California became the #1 dairy state. Those little 500 to 600 acre Wisconsin dairy farms became economically non-viable a few decades ago and only can continue by increasingly being propped up by the government - just like mom-and-pop stores lost out to the big companies.
Click to expand...

This is true. Plus most cultures do not consume milk at the levels of the white Europeans. Most other cultures use it primarily for cooking or young children. There isn't that world wide market.

I only drink milk from a certain local farm where the cows actual are out in the meadow consuming natural grasses. I can't drink the mass produced milk anymore. Yes it is a little more money but not that much and well worth the better quality of product. Plus it comes in a reusable glass bottle just like when I was kid. The best form of recycling. Now if they would deliver to the porch. I am dreaming.

I also no longer eat mass produced eggs. There is a difference. I pay only $3.75 for 18 brown large eggs and I can see the chickens out and about from the local farmer. The yoke is orange instead of yellow and they are fresh usually laid that day. I am slowly getting away from all these mass produced foods and eating more local from small farms where I know how they are raised and what they are fed.
 
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