Reading the Lancaster farm newspaper

larry@stinescorner · Mar 25, 2018

Mine comes on Saturday.Today I was reading about 26 dairy farms that got notices that the company
that picks up their milk doesnt need it anymore . They are having trouble finding someone to buy
their milk. .

flying belgian · Mar 25, 2018

That's terrible. About the only thing those guys can do is start there own creamery co-op. History repeats it self.

rockyridgefarm · Mar 25, 2018

Dunno if this is a new one, but Dean Foods announced that about a month ago. Grassland did it about a year ago.

rrc300 u · Mar 25, 2018

And the big get bigger

NY 986 · Mar 25, 2018

I don't that the market conditions are the same as when they were when the co-op's rose during the 20th Century. In some parts of the East demand is a real issue anymore. Some of the really big producers are doing vertical integration so that can leave others on the outside looking in. I hate to say it but in some cases there are farms that are done.

rrlund · Mar 25, 2018

That's always been the advantage of being a member of Michigan Milk Producers Association,it's a guaranteed market. Even if it's dumped in a manure pit because there was nowhere to go with it,if it meets quality standards,it's picked up and you get paid for it.

JD Seller · Mar 25, 2018

Larry how large are these dairies???? They have had minimum pickup requirements out here for years. So if the really small dairies did not produce enough to be worth picking up they had to pay and extra fee or get dropped. IRC it takes around 40 Holstein cows to meet the requirements. IRC it was 8000 lbs. minimum daily pickup. Some cheese plants would allow every other day pickup to get larger qualities.

Fact of life is that fluid milk consumption is flat to falling. Cheese consumption has grown and helped out a lot. So your demand is finite within a range of growth. On the production side producers have been acting like there is no limit to the demand. Doubling or tripling herd sizes with little thought to how they will market the extra milk.

Ten years ago here, North-East Iowa, the "small" herds were 100 cows. Now that number is 200-300. With the majority of the real serious diaries pushing 500-1000 head. There are not enough small producers quitting to offset the increased production from the larger diaries.

The dropped price has not seemed to slow down the producers much yet. So the processors are "picking" the diaries they will buy from. I will guarantee you the ones still being picked up are larger producers with good quality. Anything out of line and your not going to be selling milk long now.

Crazy Horse · Mar 25, 2018

Like a lot of subjects, there are always some "way out" (crazy) opinions on almost anything. Here's one below encouraging adults not to drink milk. I've read and heard about some of this over the years, but never anything this blunt or direct. I guess like anything else you read on the web, you have to make your mind up whether or not you want to believe it. I don't drink a lot of milk anymore, not for any particular reason, but morning cereal without it would be punishment. Not sure if this has to do much with anything on this YT topic, but here it is (as crazy as it might sound) .....
Untitled URL Link

Adirondack case guy · Mar 25, 2018

Not always true. A couple years back the big milk cartel here locally,( group of BTOs) lost their market. They marketed, sold and delivered huge volumes of raw milk to the east coast processors. Processors said they could do without the cartel. This situation even drug in the high powered politicians. The cartel got it's wings clipped back in the end.
The truth is there is a glut of raw milk on the east coast, and yet there is raw milk being trucked in from Wisconsin and Michigan every day.
Loren.

larry@stinescorner · Mar 25, 2018

It was Dean foods in the article I read

Commercial Farmer · Mar 25, 2018

That would be Queensboro, they were picked up by DFA. Queensboro is currently buying milk from DFA. Part of the game.

sourgum · Mar 25, 2018

There is dairy in northwest IN that supposedly has 15,000 cows on the farm. (fair oak) They are serving the Chicago and Indianapolis markets. Have never been there, but cant imagine how they make it in dairy at today's prices, which are said to be at break even point or lower. Maybe volume or they have some type of contracts maybe there is a support price they get here in US. don't know. One of the farm papers said 17-20 small farm dairy's filed Chapter 13 in Wisconsin at the end of 2017. No law against large dairies here but that can't be helping the small operation farmer.

coshoo · Mar 25, 2018

The really big ones cut out a lot of middle men by buying commodities by the rail car load- one here has leased a rail siding about a half mile from the farm, has the equipment to unload. I think he uses hedging and the commodities exchange somehow- if price goes one way he sells the contract and makes money, if it goes the other, he takes delivery and feeds his cows.

Traditional Farmer · Mar 25, 2018

Unfortunately it looks like dairy farming is going the same route as hogs and chickens.

Ozlander · Mar 25, 2018

(quoted from post at 11:27:19 03/25/18) That's always been the advantage of being a member of Michigan Milk Producers Association,it's a guaranteed market. Even if it's dumped in a manure pit because there was nowhere to go with it,if it meets quality standards,it's picked up and you get paid for it.

Dream on, they can't dump milk forever and keep paying you.
They go under and what'll you do?

john in la · Mar 25, 2018

Like any farmer.
When inputs are down and sales are up you increase production.
That happen a few years ago when corn was down and milk prices were up.
Now we have a major glut in the milk market.
In the past the government stepped in and was giving cheese and butter away.
Today it looks like trying to undermine other countries (Canada) import tariffs on milk is the solution.
And all the while we are talking about putting import tariffs on things coming into our country.

But how can we complain about the farmers over supplying the market when the government keep bailing them out.

JD Seller · Mar 25, 2018

coshoo: You have part of the equation The larger dairies buy the feed in larger lots. The majority of them also use options to protect their milk prices with a price floor. The larger dairies usually ship in tanker loads too. They often can get a premium for doing that too.

The biggest difference is the labor costs. The majority of the dairies we shipped feed to had just about 90% Mexican labor to do the milking/feeding chores. They where not paid poorly either usually $15-20 an hour. When you look at the labor per hundred weight of milk there is not comparison to a smaller family dairy. The family living cost that would come out of the smaller dairies makes their cost per hundred weight be much higher. I do not support this nor encourage it, I am just stating the facts as I see them.

The open border policy hits the rural areas harder than many think it does. The smaller dairy farmer is working against immigrant labor. So he ahs to beat the price or be willing to work/live on that level of income.

Spook · Mar 25, 2018

(quoted from post at 16:10:42 03/25/18) coshoo: You have part of the equation The larger dairies buy the feed in larger lots. The majority of them also use options to protect their milk prices with a price floor. The larger dairies usually ship in tanker loads too. They often can get a premium for doing that too.

The biggest difference is the labor costs. The majority of the dairies we shipped feed to had just about 90% Mexican labor to do the milking/feeding chores. They where not paid poorly either usually $15-20 an hour. When you look at the labor per hundred weight of milk there is not comparison to a smaller family dairy. The family living cost that would come out of the smaller dairies makes their cost per hundred weight be much higher. I do not support this nor encourage it, I am just stating the facts as I see them.

The open border policy hits the rural areas harder than many think it does. The smaller dairy farmer is working against immigrant labor. So he ahs to beat the price or be willing to work/live on that level of income.

Around here, it really hit the construction workers. Carpenters, drywall, masons, all had to either take a pay cut or find another job.

Mark W. · Mar 25, 2018

Same here in NW PA Larry. Except it was 86 farms in 2 counties. Deans cut them as Walmart now has their own production facility. NO MORE WALMART for me.

Bruce from Can. · Mar 25, 2018

I had heard last week that Dean Foods is starting to loose contracts it has had with Walmart And Walmart is developing their own processing and dairy farms.

olgentdc · Mar 25, 2018

Certainly correct assessment.. jezebel foolishidhness ,usingf vulgar language ,,..your post hardly justifies a reply except start looking for viable statements instead of misleading half truthes.. Thats the trouble with modern Journalism,and much of media news .. there is no CREDIBILITY

WGM · Mar 25, 2018

One of the benefits of working non-union.

WGM · Mar 25, 2018

It's 18,000 cows they milk and its called Fair Oaks Farms. They are now expanding into swine and beef.

sourgum · Mar 25, 2018

There are 6 or 7 ethanol plants within 100 miles of this mega dairy in IN that would have DDG's as by product from ethanol production. I think all may be operational. This dairy may be getting major discounts on bulk purchase of DDG's to feed those cows some feed especially the close by e-plants Have heard that it is good feed and have to get rid of it somewhere.

formenwhogrow · Mar 25, 2018

Yup. It was bound to happen. Small dairies here in western pa are going the way of the dodo bird at a rapid rate. It's a shame. My small neck of the woods had 25-30 small dairies that were the backbone of the local ag community 25 years ago, now there are 6 and the biggest and nicest one just sold their herd of 120 last spring. I've been told wall mart wants to get milk on single source loads, there's not too many dairies that can fill a tanker in a day around here. Matter of fact, there's none. Heavy Grain farming is not an option due to topography (it takes a lot of running to round up a few hundred acres of tillable land around here) and the Horse hay market is flooded and lots of guys have no idea how they're going to make any sort of go at farming. Kind of depressing.

Traditional Farmer · Mar 26, 2018

That's the problem with Gov't 'help' it keeps the person that receives it from facing economic reality a little at a time,then when gov't (voters) decide enough is enough and end the
givaways they are hit with an economic sledgehammer.Gov't handouts have kept a lot of farmers going that should have been out of business long time ago, that has added to the surpluses that are the root of the problem.

db4600 · Mar 26, 2018

I?ve been to enough county fairs to know wether you?re pink or yellow when the jobs ain?t there, the jobs ain?t there.

ajl · Mar 26, 2018

Always is the other guy who is producing surplus. Reality is that there is pretty much a surplus of everything these days so no matter what occupation you chose you will be producing surplus. There are no empty shelves at the store and there is no freight left at the dock due to a shortage of workers. But everybody needs something to do.

Reading the Lancaster farm newspaper

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