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Local farmers giving away free product

P

Philip d

Well-known Member
With restaurants closed tourism halted and social activities banned there have been declining sales of butter , cheese and French fries. Local farm groups have collaborated to give away some of the product that they are unable to sell. It?s good for those struggling to make ends meet, good PR for producers as well. Hopefully there weren?t too many taking advantage that could afford it but it is what it is.
News link
 
Might be good public relations, but who can give their trade away? It?s not like anyone?s input cost will disappear. And if you give away some of your potatoes, who will ever want to buy potatoes if they can get free potatoes? I am certain car sales have dropped and house sales have slowed, but I don?t think car manufacturers will be giving any cars away, or even selling them at a loss. They will just make production meet demand.
 
I agree with you there Bruce,I think it stemmed from all the angry comments following news reports of milk being dumped and potatoes going to waste. It is product that is nearing the end of its shelf life and was going to be thrown out soon anyways but no it definitely won?t help the market giving away free product.
 
Bruce, but cars/trucks/vehicles and even homes can sit unsold for much longer periods of times. Whereas fresh produce has a limited 'shelf life'.

Your comparison is like "Apples to Oranges".
 
You know who is going to give the farmers another 19 BILLION, that's how they're getting paid for it, and they will never have to pay it back!

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/17/white-house-farmer-aid-193180
 
"White House to give $19B in farmer aid"

Philip, I wasn't aware the U.S. gave $19 billion to Canadian farmers. Where did you get your information? Please provide a link....otherwise, what you stated is a lie.
 
That?s right they don?t and shouldn?t be expected to. I thought it was a nice article to share,I guess with everyone so stressed bad news is bad news and good news about kind gestures in bad times is also bad news.
 
Thank you for posting this. A little good news is always welcome. The NY State Ag college I went to has had a dairy product giveaway the past 2 Friday?s. I hope you weren?t offended by the response that doesn?t know the difference between USA and Canada.
 
I feel awful for people still in dairy right now,I know what it?s like to have heavy debt and unpredictable things out of your control making it near impossible to pay your bills and some weeks the feed bill gets paid and your own personal groceries goes on the credit card because your milk check took a hit. That?s one of the parts I do not miss about dairy and what drove me out, that and consumers/general public are up in arms when you get a little more for your milk to try to cover your bills, then get angry at you when you have to dump milk because of market shifts and they want your product for free since your just throwing it away anyhow, then they get angry at you again because your trying to be nice and give away store ready product you can?t sell. No matter how you try it doesn?t please the eye of the consumer. People shouldn?t complain because the government is trying to keep farmers afloat, good on them for trying. At the end of the day we all need food, you can thanks to the 7 day a week stressed tired farmers can buy food every day but you can?t eat money.
 
I?m still confused where I said Canadians were receiving any of the US money, if I did I?m sorry because that isn?t what I meant.
 
Haha they might as well have, seems giving to those in need in hard times is the wrong thing to do.
 
I can see where processors need to ship product before they have no more room to store it.
Once the warehouse is full, then they stop processing and send everybody home.
If a french fry processor can't get their customers to take product they have to shutdown too once the freezer is full.
If they see a long term period of no shipments going out, give away the product or dump it in a landfill ($$).
Then they can shutdown the freezers and at least do some facilities updating.
 
I can see where processors need to ship product before they have no more room to store it.
Once the warehouse is full, then they stop processing and send everybody home.
If a french fry processor can't get their customers to take product they have to shutdown too once the freezer is full.
If they see a long term period of no shipments going out, give away the product or dump it in a landfill ($$).
Then they can shutdown the freezers and at least do some facilities updating.
 
While it isn?t an attempt to compare autos to potatoes or milk, it is a direct comparison to the fact that neither of these products can be produced and sold for a loss or given away, nor should they be. The simple fact is sometimes business end up taking a loss when production exceeds demand. The business that can?t afford to take the losses, go under, and the business that can take the hit continue. Bail out money does little to help the situation in the long term. So let?s not go there
 
philip d, Your link was a wonderful tribute to Canadian greatness.

Here is a list of posts and how I messed up.

-You posted how Farm Groups are giving away produce.

--Bruce from Can. replied about how farmers can't just give their products away.

-Russ from MN then posted about how farmers are going to get $19 billion in aid. He provided a link to a Politico article about U.S. farmers getting $19 billion.

From Bruce in Canada saying farmers can't just give their products away, to Russ posting about $19 billion in aid going to farmers....I misunderstood the flow of comments.
My mistake and I am sorry.
 
Don?t feel awful for everyone in dairy right now . My business model is doing just fine thank you. Paid all of my bills last month with money enough left over, and I fully anticipate doing the same thing again this month. The only farmers that I know that are in trouble, have put themselves there of their own free will, by spending lavishly and not truly understanding just how much it cost them to produce a litre or pound of milk. Following the advice of University Professors at school claiming that economy of scale is best, and you can make more profit by producing more product. Which is true enough, in theory. But borrowing so much money that your grandkids will have to pay the debt off, just so you can produce more is nuts! And feed salesman telling you how to feed your cows to get more milk is great, but if the feed company is the only one that ends up with extra $$ why do that?
Dairyman that control their cost and keep a low or no debt, will be able to take a short term dip in revenue, and continue till the price rebounds. Farmers that are already burdened with debt, will need to adjust their business model to conform to market realities, or exit.
Dairyman, crop farmers, beef producers, poultry farmers, vegetables its all the same. Everyone applauds the big farmers, and looks down on the little guys, but often enough the little farmers are making money, while the big operations are just able to pay interest on their loans
 
That?s wonderful that you guys are surviving the storm Bruce and I truly am glad to hear that. It worked for my parents too but once we needed to expand for us all to draw a living and they needed retirement savings so they can be free from the farm and I put in a robot to replace help I couldn?t keep I fell down the rabbit hole and pulled the pin before it was too late to keep our land free and clear. I know a few that just got in or back into dairy in the last 5 years ,were mortgaged to the max from the get go and now they?re hurting.
 
When I was milking I prided myself in finding ways to save dollars and be able to get ahead! Only real problems were my parents not doing estate planning and I was the only one doing the work, my dad bless his heart would have loved to but fighting cancer!
 
It?s none of my business and please don?t take it the wrong way but when you start your succession planning you and your family will have to decide how much risk you personally are willing to keep invested in the farm. If your not willing to risk anything and you need multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for yourself and still own the lions share of the farm it will make it very tough on your sons ability to continue. I?m only speaking from experience and hoping to give some food for thought. Other than the robot which I knew I could sell if needed we only had cheap bare bones pole barns and except for a couple of tractors .everything else is/was 20-30 plus year old equipment, nothing fancy or elaborate here.
 
The same idea holds true regardless of the occupational field.

That's why many large grading contractors, repair companies, etc, etc, all went under during our last recession, and why the smaller ones are still around.

Sadly, we've got alot of 'educated idiots' out there essentially demanding that contractors use 'pretty, new' equipment if they want to do their work, because they care more about appearances than anything. Apparently they weren't taught that a brand new, 500K machine isn't going to do anything an older, well maintained, 50k machine will do, in the hands of a good operator......and that all the bells and whistles on the new machine won't turn a seat warmer/lever puller into an good operator.

Ultimately, common sense and real intelligence, seem to have been replaced by an 'education' and a piece of paper designed to 'show intelligence'. Unfortunately the real world doesn't work quite that way......
 
Greg,
Don't remember the details, but there was something about government buying the surplus food to feed the unemployed people.
No details.
George
 
Wayne I look at farm equipment the same way.I cannot see why buying $60,000 worth of hay equipment to make the same hay I have no problem making with $2500 worth of hay equipment,my cows eating the hay I make look as good or better than the ones I see out in the fields of farmers that spent the big money on hay equipment.And when I sell my calves I can spend the money anyway I want not make payments.
 
Traditional, if thats the case why are half of us still paying income tax? Guess we should keep that money from now on. I forgot about sales taxes, property taxes (to fund the unconstitutionally funded public school system), levies, estate tax, inheritance tax, fuel tax, trying to think of which ones I missed...
 
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