Dairy Farming..an Interesting Story

A few links that tell an interesting tale.

NY Dairy Farmer Profile

Two of the top three dairy states, not ag-friendly

More from the source (Lookit all them Fs!)

Reclaiming the Meaning of Abuse from the Activists

Farm Wife Blues

Stumbled via a Facebook friend on a powerful, outstanding post by a young farm wife discouraged by the outrageous attacks it has become fashionable to toss at farmers.

Farming is hard. We do it because we love it not because we can retire at 44 to standing ovations and tears around the world.

It would be nice if instead of calling us rich, greedy, polluters, out to harm animals and wreck the environment, people realized that cities damage the planet much more than farms, and even minimum wage workers often take home more actual pay than we do....I frequently rely on my check from the paper for groceries.

This young lady's poignant lament is very moving.

It's the Cows

New cow shaped milk bottles.....

I want one!

Why Yogurt Makers Aren't Flooded with MIlk

This is the most balanced and accurate article I have read so far on New York's so-called yogurt "boom". The author should be complemented on his excellent research into a complex topic.

People who don't understand the way milk is priced have been expecting farmers to be all excited about this new market for their product. Instead, far from expanding to milk more cows, dozens are simply giving up and going out of business. The new market doesn't mean any more money in their milk checks and it doesn't lower the record high energy and feed expenses they are facing.

It's okay not to understand milk pricing, by the way, because it is so ridiculously complicated as to have been written in hieroglyphs that have no key. However, the author of this article spoke to farmers and industry members who do get it, and they made the situation as clear as possible.

If you have time, read the whole article for excellent insight into what is going on with NY milk production and all the new yogurt plants.

My Own Cows

Our herd is mostly registered or eligible for registry and we each own our own cows, so we always know who is who. Because I pay the bills I am usually more willing to sell mine when the time comes than might otherwise be the case.

Thus, my herd was getting pretty small. However, with the boss giving me Asaki things were looking up.

Then I was just on the phone with Alan, who almost never makes it home any more, and he gave me Zulu, AKA Alpha Zulu Pinecone, or "Runner" because she always comes into the barn on a high jog and you don't wanna get in her way.

I am delighted. I always milked and liked her mother, old Zinnia, a swing-bagged, big-bodied old misery, who liked me for some reason and pretty much let me do whatever I wanted with her. Otherwise I couldn't have milked her as she was HUGE and her udder hung almost to the floor and was wide as a washtub. Not being awful stretchy in length, I had to put my head right down under her to milk her. If she had wanted to she could have killed me, but she never did. She was not quite as kind to others and was a calf thief as well.

So anyhow, I have two new (to my bunch) cows to add to those I already own.

Let's see....Broadway my original milking shorthorn, Scotty, my three-breed cow, Egypt, small, black, cranky, but hard-working, Velvet, not exactly my favorite, but...Northstar, another milking shorthorn, Dublin, young cow I got in a trade, Carlene, probably my best cow, another one the boss gave me, and Lucky, red carrier, bred back to Maxwell, hoping for a red heifer, but not holding my breath.

Some heifers too, Betty, a Citation-R Maple coming up to calving, a few more milking shorthorns, Pumpkin, Laramie, Rosie, her full sister, Bloomingdale, Strawberry, Cayenne, some Holsteins, including Liverpool, Lucky's last year's calf, Bastille, sister to Bama Breeze, a shorthorn steer calf, CleoPatrick (out of Egypt), and probably a couple of others I am not thinking of.

Wow, I feel lucky! No wonder I keep wanting to hang on and keep going with such a good bunch of girls (and the one steer).

The Farm Bill and the Dairy Margin Insurance Boondoggle

Hermie

Read an excellent opinion on the topic here. I can't believe everyone is so complacent about this matter.

Unrecognizable

When the shouting is over, whatever will serve as a Farm Bill is finally in place, and the dairy industry shakes itself out of this particular set of doldrums, I don't think you will recognize it any more. There are big, big ideas being sneaked into print in magazines and the agendas of meetings to get us used to some things that are not going to be good for us in the end. Extended shelf life will make all things possible....China is working hard to get their dairy industry off the ground. I am here to tell you there is speculation about importing dairy from China going on in high places. If that doesn't worry you.....

Between editorials I read, to which I won't link today because I don't even want to give them that much credibility, and what we are hearing from government officials, things look beyond grim. Certain editors and powerful officials want dairy farmers to accept the lowest possible prices and a do-over of both the Federal Orders and standards of identity for dairy products in order to keep people drinking milk. Of course people consume lots of milk in the form of cheese yogurt etc. but fluid milk sales give them a stick to whip us with so.....

I entirely agree that new products and new ways of serving dairy are good concepts and the pricing system is a mess, but blaming farmers for wanting to be able to make a living selling milk is ridiculous. I read years and years ago...before I was even a dairy farmer...that our own increases in efficiency would eventually kill us. That may be coming to fruition now.

As an industry we are walking away from the discussion leaving the health benefits of milk over other beverages on the table, and crying about prices being too high for consumers instead. Where are the comparisons between the price of a gallon of bubbly sugar water (soda), or even just plain water drawn from the tap and put in a fancy bottle, and a gallon of healthy, vitamin and mineral-rich, protein-filled milk? Where are the comparisons between the value of each of these to a healthy diet?

I can answer that question. They are on Facebook and Twitter being shared among farmers. Preaching to the choir. 

Why is someone at DMI, which spends our mandatory check off dollars, telling us that we must accept lower prices and doctored up milk products, when they are supposed to be promoting the value of milk in the diet? That is a real puzzle. They claim to have our interests at heart, but they want to get away from the gallon jug. I wonder.

It has gotten so many farm magazines are no more than mouth pieces for processors. I shudder to think that the folks whose salaries are taken right off the top of our milk checks to pay for "promotion" are thinking the same way. I am almost glad to be at the end of a career in this industry rather than at the beginning.

Farm Bill vs Parity

Fiery Hill, where the boss's mom grew up, just a stone's throw from the wedding,

So as I understand it, everybody wants dairy farmers to jump on the band wagon and insist on passage of the Farm Bill, most of which will go to pay for food stamps and various other programs to feed the needy.

"If you don't lobby hard you will lose MILC," they  (including the very folks who supposedly represent our interests) cajole us.

But, wait, I have read, and had already been thinking all by my ownself, that no Farm Bill means a return to parity pricing, which stems from laws in the early decades of the previous century.

Parity would mean $38 dollars per hundredweight. Right now we are getting in the high-ish teens, $17 per HW for Class III. On my calculator 38 is a lot more than 17...or even 20....but then I was never much good at math.

So let me see now. If we lose MILC it only will be for three months until January before parity may kick in. MILC is a make-up program to try to match the cost of making milk to the paltry amount the current regulations allow us to be paid.

 It pays a percentage of that cost, and although welcome indeed, does not bring the price of milk anywhere near the cost of producing it. 

Many farmers much preferred the now-expired North East Dairy Compact, which raised prices at the farm gate by enforcing the passing along of some of the money paid for milk in the stores to the people who make it. It didn't add very much...a few cents...to the cost of a gallon of milk at the grocery store and it merely forced the middlemen to hand it along instead of hanging on to it. It made a huge difference at the farm.

It took money out of the market instead of out of the taxpayers. Quibbling among states that don't even have a fluid milk market worth mentioning quashed the Compact a while back.

Now we are told that we should lobby like heck to make sure we get supply management dumped on us and a new "insurance" program, and to save MILC, which only makes up a percentage of what we are losing producing milk, so we make sure that we don't get paid what it actually costs us to produce it?

Makes sense to me.....NOT!

Goat

This story kinda got mine. 2009 was one of the worst years for dairy farmers.....ever. We all burned through way too much equity trying to somehow stay in business. Many of us have not begun to dig out of that hole even now. I am not sure the author intended to suggest that we should enjoy prices that low if they increase fluid consumption, but I sure hope not.

Also fluid milk is far from all of the milk marketing story. For one thing our price is based on cheese sales on the CME. Cheese consumption has climbed steadily over the past decade, while prices fluctuated all over the place. 

And notice the suggestion of shelf-stable milk there? I see that trend as a way to import a lot more milk, displacing a lot more domestic milk from the market. Components brought in under all sorts of names already displace millions of pounds of domestic fluid milk, contributing in all likelihood to the demise of many family dairy farms. 

Alternately cheap West Coast milk could show up in our markets quite easily too. If your milk will keep for six months without refrigeration you can move it a l-o-o-o-ng way before it spoils. It's already happening down under.

Considering the conditions under which milk is produced in many of the countries from which we import a lot of stuff (remember China and melamine? Their dairy industry is rebounding rapidly right now.) I shudder to think of the future.

Small Pleasures

There is such a feeling of something impending these days, and along with it a sense of endings. I find autumn both stimulating and uncomfortable.....

I guess the boss is going to stop trying to bale hay and fall to chopping and bagging it. Hopefully the rains don't get carried away and he can get some of the second and third cutting that is out there stored away for winter. It is good stuff.

Been chopping it green right along and feeding it to our girls morning and night and they are doing great on it. In a wet year green chop like that tends to go right through them without doing much good, but in a dry year it puts the fat on their backs and the milk in their udders.

It is a treat for a farm heart to walk behind a line of contented cows each morning and evening, milking machines in hand. Seeing rows of smooth, tight udders, full of good wholesome milk, waiting for you to step up in the stall, gently prep them, each with a separate, clean, paper towel and disinfectant solution, then dry them, strip out a couple shots of "fore milk", and attach the milkers. 

They actually milk out quicker when they are producing well, and are happy for your ministrations for the most part, although there are always a few who ignore you as they stretch and quest for that last pellet of grain each day. 

I can attest that it hurts to be stepped on or slammed across the head with a hard, bony tail. Broadway is irritable until she has finished her grain and will kick me intentionally if I interrupt her....and of course she is the first cow on my string so I have to. Still it is really comforting to see them doing well.

It is not the glow of great profits, although it is nice to every now and then make enough to pay the bills. It is the delight of working with animals that you love and being able to do it right. Knowing that they are comfortably doing what they do, in partnership with you doing what you do brings a deep satisfaction that new clothes or a new car can't equal. Nothing shallow about a good cow.

The boss was saying the other day that he didn't think he would miss them much if we had to sell out though. They are stern task masters and he is tired.....getting worn out from decade upon decade of hard physical work each day. The knees don't bend, shoulders ache, especially the one he broke, and he can barely lift his feet to step over stuff any more. 

The mid-sixties are not an easy time to do what he is doing. He has been milking cows since he was a little boy and driving tractor for field work since he was nine. It gets harder each year I think.

I told him that I would miss them and badly though....but then I came late to this business, only 34 years of milking cows for me to his fifty-plus.

From Any Window

The lovely and gracious lady who stopped by the farm last week was Lorraine K. Vail from Arizona. She grew up on a farm along the Hudson River here in New York State and her family has been a great influence in the world of purebred dairy cattle.

 I think that she will be an influential writer as well.

The book she gave me during her visit was From Any Window. As it happens, with the construction and the fair, the library is suddenly ten thousand miles away rather than a couple and new fodder for reading is scarce (although Becky works hard to keep me supplied.) I began reading it the very night she left it here. 

I can think a dozen superlatives to describe the story...gripping, intense, beautiful yet painful, full of light and darkness like life truly can be. The story of a farm family covering their small joys, great tragedies, animals, food, all the aspects of country life was appealing and very, very real.

I found myself mourning poor lost Lassiebell, a Jersey heifer that perished in a barn fire, as if I had known her. The people felt like neighbors, friends, even sometimes family, so believable and engaging were they.

Lorraine captured the essence of farming, within the framework of family life, in a manner that should appeal to anyone, even if they are not involved in the industry. This is a book I will read again and one that I think about often as I go about the day. Thanks, Lorraine, for bringing it all the way across America.

You can find From Any Window here.

The Realities of Dairy Farming.

Here are a few links on the never-ending saga of low prices for fluid milk at the farm gate  and perhaps a little insight into some of the whys.

First a little bit about the probable impact of the Yogurt Summit recently held in NY. I strongly agree with the writer. Any shortage of milk will self-correct as soon as farmers can make back their cost of production. Offer them a chance at a profit and you won't know what to do with all the milk.

And here is a little behind the scenes stuff that you can interpret any way you want to. Sometimes conspiracy theorists are right after all.

A bit from the Land Down Under where farmers are up against much the same forces as we are in the USA.

A heart-breaking story of too little too late for one farm, that could easily represent many other farms.

And so you have a chance to smile, a short interview with one of my favorite farm writers, Patricia Leimbach.

Anniversary of Irene

This is what happens when you let the boys chalk tail heads

You remember her. She stopped in this time last year and left a legacy of devastation that still haunts much of the Schoharie Valley and even places right down the road. 

And this

We were personally very fortunate, but neighbors lost a lot. However, one of my most compelling memories of the time of trouble was the overwhelming spirit of help and cooperation that infused the center of Upstate NY. It's impossible not to be proud of the people who pulled together for their neighbors and who still, a whole year later, are fundraising and volunteering for clean up and rebuilding efforts.

It was just a little nerve wracking to hear the rain begin to thunder down again last night, but although things are mighty soggy, it seems to have stopped and the forecast doesn't look too bad. Hope it stays nice as we would like to get over to the fair a couple of times this week. Liz took the pony over so we are down two people for a good part of the week. Nobody here but Becky and the old folks.

This is what they were supposed to be doing

On the Egypt-BooBoo cow front, so far so good. I went outside when the cows were coming into the barn yesterday morning and made her stay outdoors. Then I milked Dublin and turned her out so Egypt couldn't get me and let Egypt come inside. At night the boss offered to do the squeezing in between and getting squashed. He is bigger than me and a darn sight tougher and Egypt didn't even give him any trouble.

Fat Detective

(In more ways than one)

Corn for us, not the ladies

A little background:

Conventional dairy farmers are paid for their milk based upon the pounds of butterfat and protein they produce, as well as small premiums for quality.

Thus, although you want to make a lot of milk, it must also contain a large percentage of what are called components- your butterfat and protein. 

The boss has bred the herd for high butterfat test since he was a little boy and first got interested in registered Holsteins. In the past when we were able to afford to have the Dairy Herd Improvement Association stop in once a month to take samples from each cow, we often had tests as high as 3.9 or 4.0 butterfat. That would do a Jersey herd proud and we were indeed proud of our girls.

Those days are gone, (Ann and Tim, we miss you) as survival has become the bottom line, but up until quite recently we still maintained a high fat test. (Don't worry about this in terms of what you drink. Studies are showing that full fat dairy products contribute to weight loss more than low fat, but much of the fat is removed before you see the milk any how, even if you drink "whole" milk. This is to standardize what you buy.)

Not too long ago our test plummeted. I can see this both on the milk check (which is painful) and on the cooperative website, where I can look every day to see how every single tank of milk measures up in terms of fat, protein, negative tests for antibiotics, and a number of quality and cleanliness matters.

At first we laid it to early pasture. Much of the percent of protein in milk is decided in the cow's digestive tract. Lush pasture is low in fiber, a big component in butterfat production. Our cows go to grass to harvest their own food as much as possible.

Plus in the spring our too-small pipeline gets flooded by high production and the milk gets churned, kind of like homogenizing it...makes it seem low in fat even if it isn't. 

Normally we would supplement the pasture by feeding long-stemmed, dry hay to enhance fat and help the cows' digestion, but after last year's flood we were out of hay and buying, so we only fed until the boss started chopping and baling. Then they were supplemented with our own feed, but it was still early-cut and lower in fiber.

The commercial grain we feed could be an issue as well. Feed companies are scrambling to keep grain concentrate affordable, with corn supplies short and getting shorter. No way to tell how that will affect the cows.

Making high quality milk is a complex juggling act with lots of factors in play and many ways things can crash.

However, now, herd production has declined a bit, so the line isn't flooding. Grass has matured and the cows are getting chopped first cutting, which is high in fiber, and baled first cutting ditto. The problem should have cleared itself up by now and the cows should be testing at the very least 3.5 to 3.7% butterfat, yet they are way below that.

This brings us to another little issue that shows up in dairying sometimes...suspicious lab results. 

I'm not saying that it's so, but back when we were on DHIA it happened to us. Cows should have been testing great and were doing so in our privately paid for tests, but the correct butterfat test wasn't showing up in the tank or on the milk check. We had an additional independent test run, which showed our true percent of fat, shared the results with the right folks, and magically our "official" results improved dramatically.

Thus, along with tweaking this and that in the ration, we are having a sample on our bulk tank pulled and run to make sure that the problem is here on the farm......

The results might be interesting.

Tell your own Tale

We had some excitement here yesterday, the actual story of which I am using for this week's Farm Side. However, if you would like, this is your chance to write your own version of the tale, right here in the comment section. Please have at it!

***Disclaimer-no farmers or livestock were harmed in the filming of this wild adventure on the back and side and front (etc.) lawn.

Not for Profit

I think this indigo bunting is crying the blues

Dairy farming that is. Read about it here and bear in mind that feed is just one of many costs involved in caring for cattle.

Red Sky at Morning, Sailors Take

A nap prolly......I wonder if this bright red ball of fire floating on the sky actually means anything in terms of rain. I very much doubt it. There is an old saying I learned from my boss back when I worked on a farm instead of living on one....in times of drought all signs fail.

 And that tends to prove exactly true. Clouds build up in the sky, dry up and melt away. Red sky is just red sky, morning or evening. If you aren't in one of the drought-plagued areas you would probably be amazed by the dust. Just turning the cows up to pasture is a throat-clogging, choking experience. Normally we just open the gate, but with all the new heifers they have to be bunched up in a tight herd, then stuffed up to the gate, then someone opens the gate and they are followed and pushed through the next gate.

We feel like cowboys. We need bandannas. At least this bunch of newbies has been turned out in the barnyard before so they have some clue about acting like cows. The ones from indoor pens have no idea about fences or being in a herd or anything like that so they have to learn. It can be fun.

You would have had to laugh about the ones we turned out of the sawdust pen. The animal rights folks would have you believe that all animals are at home on the range and want to go to grass and eat clover and all that (studies have proved otherwise...given a choice dairy cows will eat at a feed bunk in the shade rather than walk to grass and
 overwhelming majority of the time), but it just ain't so. Cows like to graze all right, but they love their barn...what's not to like? Shade, cooling fans in summer, warmth in winter, fewer flies, good food....we serve it all up twice daily and they know it.


We turned six yearlings to pasture yesterday, two shorties, one Jersey shorthorn cross and a trio of Holsteins. The instant they got into the barnyard they ran to the sawdust shed pen to try to get in. They were crowding and shuffling around the gate and glaring at us and hooking at the three new ones we put in "their" house. Good thing they don't have horns or they would have torn the pen down.


So much for contented cows on pasture.


Anyhow, everybody stay cool and hydrated...with love from Northview Farm

Rustics

The boss has seven fields to go of first cutting and some second as well. It is slow going with just one man with just one tractor, but if I may brag a bit, this man puts up good hay. For the past several disastrous years of too much rain and no sunshine we have ended up buying feed a good part of the winter. 


Unless we pay top dollar for really premium stuff the cows like our own better. I've been helping feed heifers in the evening and it is a pleasure to cut a bale and toss it out. The new stuff in the mow is incredibly green, yet bone dry. Smells so good!


Praying things hold together so he can get the rest of what is out there.

More Cows

Moments, scrounging for some of the very short grass. You can see she is a little on the thin side. You expect to see some rib on a hard working dairy cow, but she could use some rain to grow her some new grass. The shine on her coat tells us that she is good and healthy though.

Since This is Supposed to Be

A dairy blog....here are some pics of the girls