Milk picture for Bruce

centash

Well-known Member
Their farmers must be hurting bad. Will our industry end up like this?
Ben
cvphoto16587.jpg
 
The USA would laugh that sign right out of the grocery store! Farmers are the anti Christ and it would do the world good if they all went broke and everyone could forage for wild nuts and berries
 
At first glance this seems like a noble gesture on behalf of the retailer, but my cynical view is that the retailer knows that too many farms will completely exit the dairy industry if prices continue to be below cost of production. Better to pay the extra ten cents now, and keep most producers heads above water. Then let them starve off and have to offer long term contracts to producers, at an even higher price, to encourage farmers back into production.
Thanks for posting this picture Ben. I will be going to the Spring Policy Conference next Tuesday, and will share this picture with other Dairy farmers. Bruce
 
Go into any organic grocery store or farmers markets all over my area and you'll see people willingly paying a premium far above 10 cents.But of course its for the type food they
want and grown the way the consumers wants it done.If a farmer isn't willing to do things the way consumers want then they rightfully don't get the premium.
 
If all consumers were willing to pay the premium for the extra labour and expense ,conventional farm food products would be left rotting on shelves and the organic shelves would be emptied. It?s a money trail,people don?t say they don?t care what their food costs they?re buying organic then conventional food only gets bought when that?s sold out. If all consumers were willing/able to afford organic the production would quickly shift. I know if organic and conventional was priced the same hands down organic would win,but there?s only a certain percentage of the population that is able to afford or willing to sacrifice other things to only buy organic. I?d love to buy all organic too but I also want to keep paying my mortgage.
 
I didn't say ALL consumers were willing to pay extra of course the folks that go to Walmart for groceries are looking for the cheapest food they can buy and of course they won't pay any premium
to the farmers or anyone else that supplies their food so farmers like you, SV and most farmers that post here have that market.On the other hand there is a pretty good size segment of the population that will is willing to pay a premium for organic,local grown,grass fed etc and the farmers that are willing to provide the food those consumers want will get the premiums.If you don't want to buy or produce organic food that is fine just don't expect organic premiums on what you produce when you sell your products.You supply the bottom of the food chain and get the bottom prices.But to say EVERYONE wants the cheapest food they can buy is a total lie,you can drive right up the road from my place and go to Traders Joes,Whole Foods,Wegmans and see that there are thousands of people buying groceries every day that price is not their #1 concern.They gladly pay a premium to get what food they want.The biggest market is rarely the most profitable one as witnessed on what is going on with conventional dairy farmers right today.
 

There is currently a proposal before the NH state legislature for a program just like this. Buy local!
 
Yea you think forcing consumers to pay extra for a product they already aren't too keen on will really make for a lot of good will toward the producers? Producers need to produce what
consumers are willing to pay a premium for.Here's a novel idea give the customer what they want,not what producers want to provide.
 
I completely agree but what I am saying is if all producers went organic either the ones that just can?t afford the premium at the store won?t eat or the premium for organic will disappear. It?s a portion of the market not all of it that people will pay the extra for the extra that goes into it. It happened in Ontario,,there were too many newly certified organic producers coming on line. Then for their extra expenses for double priced organic grains to feed their cows extra acres of land to produce unfertilized crops and homeopathic medicine they only ended up getting conventional price because that?s where their milk went. Same thing happened here 10 years ago. The worlds agricultural landbase is getting increasingly smaller and the population is continually increasing,the world woukd like organic food and God bless those of you who produce it and those who see the value in it and can/will pay for it but most of society needs intensive agricultural to keep everyone fed.
 
So what is a fair price for something??

I would guess if you ask an employee if his paycheck was big enough he would say no

If you ask a business owner if his profit was enough he would say no.

And if you ask a consumer if prices were to high he would say yes.

Simple economics 101.
 
And if all ice cream makers only sold strawberry.or all car makes only built Ford Pintos etc etc.Some build high dollar machines some build the cheapies,with the cheapies the mark up is far less.Same with food, you want to produce for the Walmart crowd fine,but when you do you'll be pressured on price all the time so don't expect anything different.People like you never tire of reciting why you would fail at something better so with that mind set you would be right.So here is the deal producing for the more high dollar market incurs some additional risk no doubt but
also can be more rewarding money wise.But farmers that want to produce for the mass low dollar market seem to think they should get the same rewards as the people that take the higher risks.
That is not the way the world or economics works.And all that no more farm land,everyone is going to starve stuff is just a bunch of B-S the big ag companies have peddled to reel in the suckers to buy their products and over produce.There are starving people in the world now,there is a huge surplus of food,and the problem is the starving people have no means to buy the surplus food.That will not change in the future.So unless you fellows are going to give the food away I don't see the mass of starving people market amounting to much.
 
Everyone has their market. Just like some need a 4 door 1 ton pickup with heated seats when a 2 door 1/2 ton will do everything they need done.

So comparing organic to conventional is like comparing apples to oranges

What gets me is there is no shortage of conventional milk on the shelves but supposedly every dairy farmer is going broke. Seems we heard a similar story from family owned hardware stores when Home Depot came to town.

Row crop farmers no longer cultivate or pick corn with a 2 row pull type harvester. Daily farmers need to realize times change. As long as there is milk on the shelf the average consumer could care less if it comes from a family farm or a BTO.
 
You didn?t read all my response,many dairies have tried to jump aboard promised 20 cents more per litre for the extra time effort and expense to be certified organic. It takes 2 years to ?cleanse? your land and herd to get certified. They all went through the process got their certification then were told there?s no home for their milk so they?ll have to accept conventional milk prices and absorbe the losses.
 
And why should they care if it all comes from conventional farms that produce virtually the same product? 50 cows or 5,000 they are all producing the same product,they're all dumping their
milk together to sell.
 
Not sure but this area is getting over a severe drought. I hope to find and quiz a local dairy farmer around here and let you know

Ben
 
In Oz the two major supermarket chains have about 80% of the market.

And one decided it was going to sell milk at $A1.00 per litre. Follow the squeeze from there.

Lately bad drought affecting quite a lot of Oz so inflated dairy feed costs etc.

Plus north Queensland (grazing country not dairy) went from drought to a monsoon trough that just hung around. Huge stock losses.

This is just for one of the big chains

https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/5897162/aaco-confirms-big-flood-losses-to-its-gulf-herds/

Our wool broker has a client in the area that got 600+ mm and has lost all stock
 
I refuse to tell lies to people who dont know any better just to get a better price for my crops and livestock
 
Most organic consumers would be convinced that you are lying to them when you say chemical grown food is as healthy as organic.No one has to convince the people that go to these stores of anything they have already done their own research and are convinced organic is better.Bottom line is it doesn't matter why someone believes any product is better than another,if you want to survive in today's world you better be prepared to supply what those spending the money want or suffer the economic consequences.
 

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