We have done this to ourselves. No other industry would let this happen to themselves. The oversupply we have created has led to a milk price that virtually no farmer can even come close to breaking even on. As our pride and yearn to be independent drives us, we choose to not band together and control our surplus. The oil industry, computer technology and many others have chosen to work together to make their supply equal their demand. Competitors choose to work together so that supply equals demand so that they can all get a fair and reasonable and PROFITABLE price for the product that they make. We have not done this.

Demand will never again be the same. Two of the most populous countries – China and India – are increasing their domestic milk production by close to 10% per year. Let alone the fact that many other countries are doing the same, becoming self-sufficient in their dairy production so they can cut out the costs of importing it. This leaves us with fewer places to put our milk and thus an oversupply is created. We cannot blame the co-ops for not giving us a better price for our milk. They have no incentive, reason, or need to give us a better price when the demand that they have for our milk is far less then the supply that we give to them. They are simply weeding out the men from the boys, but the men are absorbing the boys and the dairy industry is becoming consolidated.

What about creating some sort of supply management program? The country would be divided into 6 regions and each region would have 2 representatives representing the dairy farms from that region. The representatives would meet and form supply management actions. Dairy farmers would sign legally binding documents vowing to carry out any actions required by these ideas with the incentive that they would be guaranteed that it would be of their best interest long term. For example, the entire country of dairies could cull 5-10% of their herd. Cull 5-10% of their bred heifers. It would be a continuous control management system. This, in turn, would create jobs as well. Surveillance and disciplinarian personnel, more representatives, etc… And milk co-ops would never support such a thing because it would not allow them to control the milk price. We would.

We slit our own throats in this industry. Because we are so independent and competitive, we search and use every advantage we can go after to advance ourselves. Long-term, these actions will have detrimental effects to our livelihoods. Sexed semen is a great example of this. By 2010, there will be 300,000 more heifers on the market. This is, and already has made the cost of replacements right next to beef price. BST as well has kept more milk on the market for years. These tools are great advancements in technology and management, but should be used on a limiting basis there again based on what supply is needed for our demand. Where demand for milk and milk products is shrinking, so shouldn’t our supply. We are all together in this industry and need to learn to work together as well.

How have we allowed ourselves to get to such a point in our industry? We allow the people that buy our milk to control what they pay us for it. We allow them to pay us what they want for OUR product. We sell our product wholesale yet buy our supplies retail. This is backwards and it is high time that we create our own solution rather than allowing the government to come up with a temporary solution with just enough carrot in front of our face to keep us settled. However, if we create this ourselves, where is the money going to come from? I don’t know.

Discouraged,

Young Dairy Farmer in VT

DAIRYMEN FROM ACROSS THE NATION UNITE FOR THE NATION’S STRUGGLING DAIRY FARMERS

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. Dairy Farmers across this nation are not just suffering, but in a crisis. Their years of building equity by providing this country with a safe and stable supply of milk has disappeared at an astonishing rate over the last year that mirrors the worst of Wall Street’s losses. The instability on the nation’s dairy farms threatens the nation’s supply of fresh milk unless immediate action is taken.

No longer constrained by farm size and regional differences, a group of select dairymen from across the country met in emergency session on July 8th and 9th in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to review the current dairy economy and seek immediate and long-term solutions to the low mailbox milk prices.

The meeting was organized by a new producer forum called Dairy 360, and hosted by Lanco-Pennland Quality Milk Producers Cooperative, of Hagerstown Maryland, and Chosen Acres Consulting, a dairy consulting firm, of Ohio. Dairymen in attendance maintained herds of 37 to 15,000 cows, and were from 14 states such as Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Mexico, California, and Virginia. Others in attendance were representatives of dairy cooperatives and cattle marketing firms, as well as other agribusinesses. Present for part of the hearing was Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture, who expressed great trouble at “hearing from kids at county fairs this year with tears in their eyes about their parent’s farm going bankrupt.”

During the two-day blitz session, the dairymen heard dairy market information specialist John Bunting, of New York, who presented a very concise, but troubling, review of the facts of imported Milk Protein Concentrates, using government generated data. Bunting gave a fact-filled presentation with graphs of data about the thinly traded CME block cheese market, a substantial factor in the pricing of milk, that is easily manipulated and is a factor in the suppressed farm milk prices. Bunting has repeatedly called for “stronger enforcement of current regulations affecting imports and price discovery should result in immediate relief from these historical low milk prices.” For additional information, view John’s blog at www.johnbuntingsjournal.blogspot.com.

Doug Maddox, California dairyman and Past President of the Holstein Association of America, presented the proposed Dairy Price Stabilization Program (DPSP) gaining support from across the nation. DPSP is a supply management program that seeks to stabilize nationwide milk production, although differs in aspects from the Canadian quota system. Visit the Holstein Association’s website at www.holsteinusa.com for more information of the program. Across all regional differences and political philosophies, the group unanimously endorsed the program in its current form as the best solution on the table to help stability milk prices.
Discussion also was heard on the proposal of Jeff Weisel of Chosen Acres Consulting to reduce the amount of high somatic cell count milk. Kurt Williams, General Manager of Lanco-Pennland, advised the group that Lanco-Pennland is taking unprecedented action to reduce cell counts through enforcement of existing standards by encouraging farmers to produce higher quality milk through a combination of market incentives and penalties.

United by a common destiny and desire to provide the US with a quality milk supply, Dairy 360 expects to hold future forums, and members have already started taking action to promote programs such as DPSP and educate their neighbors and industry leaders of the challenges of imported MPCs and the problems with the CME that directly affects farm milk prices through the federal milk pricing mechanism. For more information, email info@dairy360.org.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT – 2009
Presented to the Annual Meeting
By Doug Maddox

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, we had $20/cwt milk price, high feed, fuel, and fertilizer prices, but generally, life was good. However, last fall the whole world went into an economic crisis, taking milk prices and many commodity prices with it, including our reserve fund. Our investments in our reserve fund and Foundation took a hit due to the crash in the stock market. However, we are fortunate to still have an adequate reserve fund balance. As the market adjusts, hopefully we will regain some of our losses. As the industry’s economic crisis hits our Association’s businesses and receivables, John Meyer and staff are working hard to cut costs and maintain maximum efficiency. Obviously, this is a tough year for everyone in the dairy business.

The Genetic Advancement Committee has had an exciting year, as genomics has become a commercial reality. Almost all of the bulls in A.I. are now genomic tested. Holstein breeders who sell bulls to A.I. are just now feeling the impact of a new generation of genetics. Hopefully, all of you had an opportunity to attend the panel discussion this morning. No one knows the full impact that genomics may have, but as we get more accurate information, obviously it will have a huge impact. In any other year, genomics would probably be the focus of our annual meeting. But, with these low milk prices, we’ve had other priorities.

The International Department continues to be key in the Holstein Association’s role in Holstein genetics around the world. Our Association sent a delegation to the World Holstein Conference in Ireland in October and this spring to the Holstein Conference of the Americas in Bogota, Colombia. Genomics is also a big topic of international concern as we coordinate the introduction of genomics into pedigrees. A coordinated effort by the world’s various herd book organizations is in progress. We continue to get requests from various countries and herd books for assistance in information technology. Ours truly is a global industry, and the world seems to get smaller every day.

When we were in Washington D.C. last February, it was interesting to attend the House Ag Committee hearings on animal identification. The House members of the committee were particularly blunt in their assessment of the need for traceability and mandatory identification. It looks like we finally have a chance at a national mandatory program. Both consumers and international markets demand it. With the FAIR database, when national identification does become a reality, the Holstein Association should be in a good position to provide that service. While much of our attention is on milk prices and genomics, we need to remember that identification is still our core business.

One of the areas I am most proud of is the increased commitment by the board of directors to our Junior programs, Holstein Foundation and especially, the Young Dairy Leaders Institute (YDLI). The future of our industry depends on strong leadership, and our goal is to help develop the very best and brightest leaders for our industry. So as we move forward, I hope you will join us as we continue to grow YDLI. Even more than ever, our industry is in need of leadership.

However, what’s on everyone’s mind in the dairy industry is our economic crisis! In addition to June being “Dairy Month”, June is also NBA playoff time. As I watched the NBA playoffs one thing was clear – the teams with the best teamwork are winning. For us dairymen, another thing is very clear. Our industry is in an economic crisis. Today, the dairy industry is reeling with possibly the lowest milk prices in history and with cost of production still at an extremely high level, many dairymen are losing $3 to $4 per cow per day. If the economic outlook does not change soon, a significant number of dairy farmers could go out of business. I know that generally these eventually are absorbed by larger, stronger dairy farmers. This attrition of dairy farm philosophy is historically how our industry has operated. Some will argue that this process is how capitalism works. However, the end result is the “last man standing” concept and “the strongest will survive”. Capitalism or not, the “last man standing” concept is not the American Way and is not in our members’ best interest. Those of you that adhere to the rules of the Ten Commandments need to remember that the 11th commandment for dairy farmers should be “Do not covet thy neighbors cows!”

We need an effective marketing plan and a program that affects real production and marketing change. Last January, the Legislative Affairs Committee recommended to the board of directors that, in an effort to stabilize the peaks and valleys of milk prices, Holstein Association USA, Inc. initiate a plan toward a national supply management program for milk in the U.S. As many of you know, we have developed the Dairy Price Stabilization Program. This program would establish a national production base for each dairy farmer. It will give the industry a program to control the supply of milk needed for the market. In essence, it is designed to control the surplus of one to three percent over production that sends our prices in a spiral downward. Hopefully, the Dairy Price Stabilization Program will accomplish this change. This is going to take industry-wide support and teamwork. This industry crisis makes our Association mission statement, “Provide leadership, information, and services to help members and dairy producers worldwide be successful,” even more relevant and appropriate at this time. I urge you to go to our website and sign on, and urge all who are interested to do the same.

How do we solve our problems? Let’s start with the same philosophy as a winning basketball team, teamwork! As dairy farmers, we can only cut expenses so much before we start to have a long-term effect on our herds. It’s time to rethink how we market our product. Economics 101 states that the basic law of economics is supply and demand. When supply exceeds demand, prices decline. When demand exceeds supply, prices increase. I’ll say it again – the dairy farmers in the U.S. need to “produce for the market” instead of trying to “market all we produce.” Until we realize that fact, we will be plagued with low and unstable milk price swings. It is in this vein that your Holstein Association USA board of directors has developed the Dairy Price Stabilization Program. While the basics of this program are simple, it changes the concept of how we produce for the market. If these low prices continue for much longer, our industry will be devastated to the point that it may never be the same. If our industry is to continue as we know it today, and if our family lifestyles are to continue as we know them, we need to work together. It is not just one milk marketing cooperative or one state association, but all dairymen coast to coast, north to south, and east to west. It’s going to take a huge effort and real teamwork if we are to win this battle. Using a sports analogy, if we are to be successful, we need a home run, a basket, a touchdown, and a goal all at once. That will require real “Teamwork!” What does teamwork mean? Since we have been here in Sacramento a lot of people have asked, “How can I help?” First, let me tell you that we need everyone who has an interest in our industry to help. Dairy farmers, bankers, feed companies, equipment companies, A.I., in fact everyone needs to step up to the plate. No one is going to do this for us. If we do not make it happen, it won’t happen! Let me give you some ideas of how to help.

1. Sign up your support on our website at www.holsteinusa.com/association/dairyprice.html
2. Get other dairymen to sign up.
3. Get your coops and allied industry to sign up.
4. Log in and comment on the Holstein World website.
5. Organize efforts with local and state dairy organizations to support the DPSP.
6. Call, write, and put pressure on your congressman. “This will take congressional action.”

When I ran for president in Tennessee two years ago, I said our industry is changing rapidly. Our industry needs leadership. I asked then and I ask now, “If not us, who?” “If the time is not now, then when?” I’m asking, I urge, and I plead, please help! You will get more information in the Dairy Price Stabilization Program on the report from the Legislative Affairs Committee and from Dr. Bob Cropp’s presentation this afternoon.

The last four years (two as Vice President and two as President) have flown by. I am more impressed than ever with the strength and dedication of the members of the Holstein Association. In addition, I can’t say enough about the excellent quality of our Association’s staff and John Meyer’s leadership. It is second to none. Lastly, I want to thank my fellow board members. Vice President Larry Tande, and all members of the board of directors are true professionals. They are the reason that your Association has been so successful and enjoys the immense respect of our national dairy industry.

Thank you for your trust and support you have given me. It has truly been a privilege to serve on your behalf.

Now we have work to do. Let’s roll up our sleeves, and let’s get the job done! The dairy world is depending on us!

Two more producers weigh-in on the current situation of our country’s dairy industry.

–

Are we killing ourselves??
Here is some food for thought…

CWT program:

CWT stands for Cooperatively Working Together. The objective of CWT is to raise milk prices to dairy farmers by reducing the domestic milk supply. It is a voluntary program administered by the NMPF and not the federal government.

My issues with the program:

1. We’re culling a herd’s mature cows…short term results
2. Were culling a herd’s cull cows…little to no results
3. This program is not mandatory (70% participate)…thus one of the problems with the dairy industry…we don’t all work together to try to make things better.

Possible Suggestions:

1. Cull Springers…Long Term Results…the most bang for our buck!!
2. Program made mandatory to all who ship milk.

Sexed Semen:

Increasing the number of calves by using sexed semen that has been mechanically manipulated to contain significantly higher-than-normal concentrations of X-bearing sperm. Overtime as methods of sorting semen become better…so too will conception rates…making an even more impact on the dairy industry…What kind of impact will this have on supply in the industry??? Should sexed semen be outlawed in the dairy industry??? Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea…especially long term!!

Posilac:

Posilac is a supplement of the naturally occurring cow hormone BST, that when administered to cows allows them to produce more milk (10lbs/day??)…Is this another product that is creating more supply in our dairy industry!! YES!!! I would argue though that it is a great tool on most dairies and can help lower your costs of production.

Labeling of dairy products:

“BST Free Milk”…first off, we all know that all cows produce somatotropin… My issue with the labeling of dairy products is that we are creating fear with consumers…how is this effecting consumer demand?

All of these topics that I have discussed show how our industry fails to work together to create a more stable milk price.

Still hangin in there,

Chris Smithgall
Old Acres Farm
Perry, New York
csmithgall@yahoo.com

–

My biggest question concerning the current proposed quota system is why some dairy producers are in such a hurry to punish themselves and especially the future generations of dairy farmers with such a plan. The Association just very wisely invested 2 million dollars in the Holstein Foundation to help prepare future dairy farmers and now we are telling them not to bother unless they have quota to inherit. We produce a good product at a reasonable price. Dollar for dollar dairy products have as much or more nutritional and taste value as any other food, we all know this. 2008 was proof of our ability/tradition/responsibility to feed the world with our excess. We are not totally responsible for the current economic situation our industry is in. We did not cause the sub-prime morgage mess or the banking crisis that led to the global recesion we currently are in. Are there problems in the milk marketing system? Yes. Have our coops sold off too much control of the finished product? I believe so. But then again, as in the words of our elected officials in DC, “Never waste a good crisis.”

Doug Post
Sipka Holsteins

I would vote “no” on any type of government mandated supply management program. This “leave no child behind” attitude towards dairy industry producers only creates limited opportunities for producers regardless of their management abilities. There should be no program that guarantees all participant’s success. The best managed businesses, regardless of industry, should reap the financial rewards for a job well done. Also, I strongly oppose any government mandated program. The government should spend its time and resources monitoring the speculation game investors use to manipulate feed commodities that directly affect our profit margins. These artificial purchases of commodities by non end-user entities inflate commodities to us as consumers. We need a level playing field if we, as American dairymen, are expected to compete in a global market with our products.
Dino Migliazzo, California Dairy Producer

__________________________________________

Quite frankly, if something is not done soon most of the US dairy farmers will be OUT of business. With costs (source USDA) over $20 per 100# and income slightly over $10 per 100# most cannot survive long!

What about our Canadian neighbors that have been receiving fair prices for years and contiunue to receive $30 per 100lbs…. for their milk?

Why not LEARN from them? They copied their program from the British Milk Marketing Board in 1968. Why re-invent the wheel? The Brits lost the heart and soul of their program long ago, as did Australia and New Zealand..only Canada remains the shining example.The Canadians in business in 1968 got their quota for free in 1968. Still most were against it except for one great leader (a dairy farmer), who convinced them of its merits and they got their quota. What about new farmer? A new farmer can’t get started in the US without famuly help..so what if they get started and then go bankrupt? That is not good either.

The current pending Sen. Bill 889.(our best choice so far), addresses supply management the US milk price system and dairy imports…. something the US Holstein proposal does not.

If we kill 1 million cows in the US, imports will still flow in, including the biggest problem…Milk Protein Concentates.

Take a look at the Canadian sytem below – http://www.dairygoodness.ca/en/trade-and-industry/organization/programs/canadian-quality-milk/canadian-quality-milk.htm

Sincerely,
Ron Flatness, Flatness International Inc.

from Mid-Maryland Dairy Veterinarians
at every client encounter and producer meeting, the discussion always centers around the current condition of the dairy industry. Many solutions are proposed, people in power are berated, fists pound, feet stomp, and we resign ourselves to a sense of hopelessness. But, there is hope. The only question we should be asking is, “What are we waiting for?” Fear and uncertainty facilitate action. But if we wait too long to act, if we continue to react rather than proactively seeking opportunity for change, the right time to act will pass us by along with the future of the dairy industry. We believe the time to act is NOW!

On Tuesday, July 14, at 10am, the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture has scheduled a public hearing to review the economic conditions facing the dairy industry. The docket has already been filled but you still can have your voice heard.

The Quick Links section listed below contains three websites that you need to visit. The first link is simply the House Committee on Agriculture schedule. The second link provides contact information for individual committee members. The third link provides general contact information for the Committee.

We recommend that you take advantage of this contact information. Please use it and share it!

http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/schedule.html

http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/members.html

http://agriculture.house.gov/contact.html

Hagerstown, MD – According to Mount Joy, PA, dairy farmer and cooperative president, Joe Hess, Lanco-Pennland Dairy Cooperative has endorsed the Dairy Price Stabilization Plan as developed by the Holstein Association. Kurt Williams, General Manager, believes that the program “is our last best hope” to reach some stabilization in milk prices in the immediate future, although issues such as MPCs and thinly traded markets need to be addressed over the long haul. According to Ed Crossland, counsel for Lanco-Pennland, “calls are coming in from all of our dairy farmers. They are suffering, large and small, and I am fearful that many are now beyond the brink of recouping the loss of equity in cows, land and equipment that has taken decades to build.” The cooperative encourages producers to visit the Holstein Association’s website http://www.holsteinusa.com/association/dairyprice.html to view the plan, and lend their support, as well as to enlist the support of neighbors, cooperatives and allied industries. Lanco-Pennland is a milk marketing cooperative serving farmers in the mid-Atlantic states of PA, MD, WV and VA.

After reading the article posted earlier today that was published by the NY Times yesterday, Chrissy Wood of Penn-Gate Farm in PA decided a letter to the writer of the story was in order. She sent that message today at 11:18 am…and at 11:27 am she received a reply!! Please see the e-mails exchanged below.

Peter,

I am a dairy farm gal from Pennsylvania and your NY Times article has found its way to me…THANK YOU for printing our story…

All the folks you quoted are friends of ours…HOW can we get even more coverage?

This nation needs to understand here and now that IF we dont alert the politicians of our severe income loss…we shall be IMPORTING OUR FOOD JUST LIKE OUR OIL…

Do we really want that to happen? To be at the mercy of other countries with NO food safety measures feeding our nation?? I.e. the Melamine predicament in China last year will be in our country next time around!

We are such a small minority…just hard working farmers who dont know where else to turn BUT to the media at this point.

I am a proud 4th generation farm girl and I have had to tell my two sons to NEVER consider farming as a way to earn a decent living. I have essentially kicked them off this farm because I know it will mean their financial ruin with the current pricing system and imports into this country….it breaks my heart to tell them this…they are 18 and 22 yrs old and they WANT to feed this country and this world.

Food will be like oil someday…mark my word…

Thank you again for your words in print…

Sincerely,

Chrissy Wood
Penn Gate Holsteins

—

Mrs. Wood: Thanks for the nice note. And, yes, the food=oil discussion is an important one. I can’t write on this very often, but if you have a specific story idea — particularly if a longtime farmer or feed operation closes, — please feel free to pass it on…

Best,

Peter Applebome

Each morning I receive news alerts from Google that contain anything and everything posted to the web as a news item with the word “dairy” included. Most times the articles are fine to read but nothing that really makes me say, “This author gets it.” And by ‘it’ I mean the current situation all dairy farmers are experiencing. This morning I was delighted to read an article that left me hurrying to post it in our blog and share with as many people as I could! Even better, the story was published by The New York Times. – Sarah

It’s never been an easy life. Up at 4:30 for the first milking, finish up around 8 at night. You make a living, but not much of one, which is why the average age of dairy farmers keeps creeping up into the 50s and 60s. The big payday is when you get out of it and sell your land.

“It’s a profession that if you weren’t born into it, no one would do it,” said Donald Hosking, who with his wife, Joanne, raises 100 Holsteins on 81 lovely rolling acres in Delaware County at the far reaches of the Catskills. “We just don’t know any better.”

So back when they started dairy farming on Roses Brook Road 22 years ago, there were seven other dairy farms on the road. Now one other is still hanging on, and the rest have been sold to lawyers, architects, commodity brokers from the city and suburbs. In 1998, there were 8,700 dairy farmers in New York. Now there are 5,700.

For all the vagaries of markets and weather and balky cows, there used to be a hazy ostensible logic to the business. Now it’s a global market complicated by commodities traders, the balance between imports and exports, the needs of agri-conglomerates, and the role played by strange new players like the imported milk protein concentrates, or M.P.C.’s, which some say are distorting the market with unregulated and potentially unsafe milk substitutes used in cheeses and dips.

But the bottom line seems to be that the global recession slammed the brakes on demand — fewer restaurant visits, less ice cream, less cheese — at a time of peak supply. Two years ago, Mr. Hosking was making about $20 per 100 pounds of milk. Now he’s making about $10.85. Meanwhile his costs — grain, fuel, high-protein feed — have gone up about 50 percent. Last year he took out about $40,000 from savings to keep going. This year it will be about $50,000. Farmers who have tapped out their equity — a growing number — could be gone in months.

“It’s 1973 prices and 2009 costs,” he said. “It still costs X number of dollars to run the farm, no matter what you’re bringing in. Detroit can shut down when their lots are full. We still have to feed and milk our cows every day.”

Dave Rama, who has a cattle auction business in Delhi, said everyone was in the same boat, with the cost of producing milk exceeding its price.

“I am learning more about bankruptcy than I ever intended to learn,” Mr. Rama said.

He drives from Mr. Hosking’s farm to Unadilla, the hills impossibly green from all the rain, grain silos poking into the blue sky. There he meets two of the younger farmers, Luke and Derek Johnson, 32 and 24, Cornell ag achool grads taking over their family farm. There are 300 cows and beehives and fields of corn, the bounty of American agriculture everywhere you turn.

LUKE JOHNSON says he’s always been an optimist, and he figures this will work out, too. He’s lucky to have a highly regarded farm operation, though he worries about his neighbors and already has $300,000 in debt against $500,000 in equity in cows and machinery. Still, he says: “It’s hard to see good farmers desperate. I was just in California at the national Holstein convention, and all the delegates there had desperate looks on their faces, as if they didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

HOBART, N.Y. – It all seems far away. We don’t see where our food comes from, and who could pay attention anyway, what with the endless cavalcade of amusements that’s the summer news — the randy governors and senators, Jon and Kate, poor, put-upon Sarah Palin, the farewell to M.J.? But maybe that’s the idea. In the real world around the corner and in distant places like Hobart and Delhi and Unadilla it’s not getting better and it’s not getting clearer, so bring on the freak shows, the more the merrier.

Mike Van Amburgh is an animal science professor at Cornell who grew up on an Ohio dairy farm. “I’m almost 50 years old, and in my lifetime it’s never been this bad,” he said. “Everyone’s in the red.”

For the dairy farmers, he said, absent a sudden worldwide boom pumping up demand, the most likely result is a historic washout of dairy farmers — some say 10 percent, 20 percent or more around the end of the year — that would reduce supply, raise prices and reset the bar.

Which kind of dairymen, he was asked, are in the biggest trouble?

“Everybody,” he replied.

Published in the NY Times by Peter Applebome, 7/8/09
E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com

June 26, 2009

Fellow Dairy Enthusiasts,

Many dairy producers across the country have crossed the critical threshold and appear to be heading into the abyss. The meltdown in milk price which has gone on for so long is destroying the very fabric of the dairy industry.

Hundreds of dairy producers have repeatedly sent emails, letters and made phone calls to various senators, congressional representatives, the Secretary of Agriculture and higher elected officials that have gone unnoticed. We must assume the following: Dairy producers have no political influence in Washington. Large manufacturers that process dairy products do have political influence in Washington and their balance sheets have never looked better.

Dairy industry producers need to form a united coalition that will create milk prices that will allow them to survive. “United we stand, divided we fall” has never been more appropriate. Quota’s, vs. no quota’s; stricter cell count standards, imports, etc., we never form an industry consensus. This is not an issue of larger vs. smaller producers. Today, because of the drastic situation in the industry, all producers large and small are in peril and must work together. This is a national problem that can only be solved from within, by us and us alone. We cannot expect the government to offer a bail out solution. Does anyone really think a majority of legislators will call for an immediate increase in milk price that would affect their voting constituent’s pocket books?

One of the things we can do together is to curtail the current explosion of the heifer population via sexed semen. Industry innovation is a great thing but let’s understand what we are up against, on one end, we are paying to buy out herds and on the other we are paying to increase cattle numbers. Think about that statement. Remember, the more milk we have on the market, the less is it worth, the same applies to cattle values. Talk about our industry shooting ourselves in the foot! Producers are paying on both ends.

One of the problems that all dairy producers are facing today is that the large conglomerates can purchase dairy products more cheaply from foreign markets especially from some third world countries. Our country is in the midst of a global labor war, a war we cannot win and few legislators appear to realize that. No matter what your political party, most elected representatives are not representing you and few have any idea of what the real world is like after they have been entrenched in the beltway politics of Washington. In numerous countries around the globe, labor can be purchased for one dollar per day and the day is twelve to fifteen hours long. These countries provide no social security, workmen’s comp, unemployment insurance, overtime, etc. We are trying to compete against slave labor; in fact, slavery is rampant around the globe. Our civil war was about the abolishment of slavery yet many of our corporations have fled to those countries that condone these activities. Our country cannot compete with slave labor. Free trade is one thing, fair trade is another.

If our industry does not take a stand, imports will continue to increase at a rapid rate and this issue threatens all farms, large and small. The large dairy conglomerates that control the milk market are excited to think of the possibilities of importing massive quantities of extremely cheap dairy products in the future. It will really boost their bottom lines! The best way to achieve their goal is to extinguish as many producer voices in this country as possible as quickly as they can.

I say, the more voices on our side of the equation and the louder they are, the better off the U.S. dairy industry will be. As an industry we need to better educate our consumers as to where their food is coming from. Most of our dairy producers are excellent stewards of the land and provide a quality product. Imports of food from many of the same countries promoting slave labor, carry contaminates and carcinogens and are produced in areas that wallow in pollution. I think our consumers would like to know that. A professional five minute narrated video of pristine U.S. dairy facilities would be a great influence to consumers along with a three minute video of indentured servants working on dairies in third world countries, working in squalor and filth and horrendous pollution. We should point out in the video that government officials have been allowing these imports to freely enter the food chain and rarely know the conditions under which they were produced and some imports may be contaminated. You can expect the phones to ring in Washington after we give the consumers the number to call and yes it will make a difference.

We are on our own. Drastic times require drastic measures. Producers large and small must come together as one voice while it is still loud enough to be heard. It’s time to institute a panel of elected dairy producers from across the U.S., large and small producers that set specific dairy policies for the entire industry, spend our money wisely and put together an informative and comprehensive educational campaign that rallies consumers to our side of these very important issues. Producers should stage a huge two day tractor convoy of dairy producers in Washington. That would get some attention!

Think outside of the box. Remember, no matter what anyone tells you, you have virtually no representation, the large dairy conglomerates have the influence and lobbyists. It is commonly assumed that in the next year ten percent or more of our producers will be out of business and many others will be financially devastated for years. Producers must organize, stand firm, rally the consumer and never waiver from decisions made for the good of all producers. As producer numbers decline, imports will increase; your voice will become muted and weaker year by year. It’s high time producers take control of their industry and get the consumer involved. Stand united and you will be justly rewarded!

Sincerely,

David M. Rama
(Email Dave your comments at cattleex@delhitel.net)