Seeing Red on the Day of the Green

Here is somebody who wears green every day

As a Facebook friend pointed out the dairy markets are crashing again. It was looking as if we were going to see some decent prices this summer, which is a great thing for little farms like ours. Although we milk year round, we are just a bit on the seasonal side, with a lot of cows calving right now.

Then the mamas go outside to graze for the summer, fresh and ready to make a lot of milk for us on that nice green grass. For those circumstances to coincide with good prices would mean we could pay of some of the poor folks to whom we owe money and maybe do a few of the things many folks take for granted.

Alas, I guess those futures markets were just idle speculation, tempting dairy farmers into thinking things might be okay for a change. You can read ongoing discussions on all the factors involved in the dairy markets here.

So we are seeing red the about market messing around, and we are seeing it in the color of our bottom line.

We are also seeing it in the lovely mahogany-and-white of the big bull calf born to Broadway last night. He is sure a beauty! Of course he decided to be born at midnight after a six-hour struggle on the part of his mama, so I am even more jet-lagged than after the time change. We took it in shifts to walk over to the barn and check on old B-Dub.

For hours and hours and hours, nothing was happening. Then there were feet and a nose when I made the last hike. I assisted a little just because she had been laboring so long, but she would probably have had him okay without me. He is so huge I had to call the boss to lift him over the gate in front of her so she could lick him off!

As time goes on I like the milking shorthorn cattle more and more. Six hours of hard labor and B-Dub jumped to her feet the minute he was out and swapped ends to moo and lick. Six hours of being hard labored upon and he was shaking his head and sneezing and trying to crawl up to her face in less than a minute after birth. The red ones are hardy cows indeed.

Happy St. Patrick's day to everyone! I am using the circles under my eyes for my wearing of the green. With all the McIntosh's and McGiverns and Ferrins and such in the family background, I figure there is green enough right in my blood.

Dairy and Fruit Walmart's Strongest Categories

Read about it here. Glad someone is making money on milk.

Dairy News Aggregator

Dairy Insider

Another Sad Story of Farmer Suicide

From John Bunting.

This is a sad tale of a hard-working young family caught up in the very vortex of the dairy price cyclone. If you think current somewhat higher milk prices are a panacea you need look no farther than the price of corn and fuel and the scary activities of the futures market and cheese to see that things are still ugly and not getting prettier fast.

Who Would Burn a Barn?

With animals inside.....a real horror story. Thank God the farmer's son was observant and discovered the fire before it spread any farther.

Dairy Politics

In the 122nd District. Read about it here.

This Explains a Lot

From John Bunting's Blog. I frequently feel sad and guilty because our place doesn't look as nice as it should. These numbers can tell you where the fix it up money goes.

"In June, 2010 New York dairy farmers were paid a total of $177,505,300. According to USDA "Costs and Returns" the total costs were $261,960,900. There will be those who argue the "costs" numbers are not accurate because milk can be made cheaper - think slavery."

What's Up with The Milk Numbers

According to all those dairy situation reports you read in all the farm publications, production is up from last year despite the loss of so many farms. According to a source close to the industry (who shall remain unnamed) plants are scrambling for milk and taking loads they turned away a few months ago.....hmmmm......

July 4th Milk Dumping Protest "Dump the Milk Day"

I had been hearing rumors of this protest here and there but this is the first I have seen actual published material on it.

No Dairy Farms Left by 2024

Check out John Bunting's blog for some very disturbing figures.

Dairy Anti-Trust Hearing in Batavia

John Bunting linked to this live blog from the hearing yesterday. I am working my way through it as well as waiting for analysis from NY Farm Bureau to be posted. This is a complicated topic, but if something isn't done soon this country is going to change in a big way but not in a good way. Has the cooperative system been perverted until some coops work to make money from farmers rather than serving them? Will USDA do anything about this? Time will tell, but whatever it happens it is already too late for a lot of farms.

Here is another story about the meeting.

More Important Stuff About the Dairy Crisis

On the Dairy Goddess' blog.

"Processors Report Record Profits-While Watching the Demise of Dairy Farmers! Why Aren’t We Having A “COW”?"

Farm Bureau Lobby Days

Liz's Roylane Jordan Daughter, Gypsy

In Albany today. A chance to sit down with legislators or their staffs and discuss farm issues. I went for the first time well after I turned thirty. Liz is only 23, but she is there today, and this is not her first trip.

So, what do you think? Are we doing our kids a favor raising them to understand the affect of regulation on our lives, to comprehend the issues and to take action by showing up and speaking out, lobbying, attending meetings, joining organizations?

Or would it be a far, far kinder thing to let them stay fat, dumb and happy and let someone else do it?

I don't know. Sometimes it is a misery to be involved in the political side of farming. Downright painful and overwhelming and leaving behind of a feeling of total helplessness.

Sometimes there is great satisfaction. Yesterday a nationally-known figure, whom I won't name, because it is just better not to, used something I sent him in a certain campaign. (This would only be recognizable to me and three or four other people....) He didn't acknowledge me and it was better that he didn't. However, I plumb chortled when I saw it. Yeah! Sometimes you can make a difference, even just a tiny little bitty one.

So is it right to raise your kids to kick upstream like questing trout, despite the pain it might cause them, or to let them drift unknowing in the warm, soft waters of ignorance and uncaring? What do you think?

*****I know we will be missing Liz. With Alan in college just Becky, the boss and I will have all the chores. To me it is worth it though...

Seantor Darrel Aubertine on Dairy and the Farm Labor Bill

If you are interested in dairy and farm issues or especially if you dairy farm in New York, please take a few minutes to watch this video of the State Senate hearing yesterday on the farm labor bill that is being debated in the ag committee. Senator Aubertine clearly understands the problems facing dairy farmers today and he speaks well on them.

As a dairy farmer I am personally very grateful.

Farm Labor Rally in Albany Today

Don't Plow Us Under....Read about it here...

Just When We Thought

....that the dairy industry might be beginning...just baby steps mind you...to crawl out of the terrible pit it has been in for the past year, comes yet another threat.

Favorable climate gives NZ farmers a huge advantage in dairying as their cows remain on pasture year round, expensive buildings are not required, and supplemental feed costs are negligible. Last time we got involved in trade talks with them and dairy was on the table, they got to send us Cheddar cheese, we got to send them cat food. Not so advantageous for our struggling industry.

DELAP Payments Processed Yesterday

I spoke to a friend at the local USDA office yesterday (she was kind enough to call me so I could put it in the Farm Side) and she said that they had processed these payments. They will be a welcome stocking stuffer (so to speak) for the nation's dairy farmers. The payments were calculated based on milk production between February and July of this year. This number will be doubled and paid at a rate of thirty-two cents per hundredweight.

Although there is no question that this is more than welcome, milk prices were $5.55 lower for that same hundredweight of milk than last year, meaning that hauling out of this hole will be a long process. (I heard estimates at a milk cooperative meeting I attended that said that it will take three years of twenty-dollar milk to even pull most farms even.) Prices have shown some slow up-ticking over the past two months, with class 3 hitting around $14.85 for December milk, which well above the low for the year. However, the all milk price for the year, according to Bob Cropp, will be.$12.75, still far below the cost of production.

Here's hoping the national and world economies recover enough over the next few months that folks can afford dairy products again....and that the big guys pay attention to the anti-trust investigations that are occurring and let some of their record profits trickle down to the folks who produce the products they peddle.

DELAP Payments Being Sent

According to NY Farm Bureau USDA has said that payments will be mailed by December 24th.


Below is an earlier press release on the topic.

USDA Announces New Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment Program to Provide Financial Relief to Struggling Dairy Producers

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the implementation of the new Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment (DELAP) program. The 2010 Agricultural Appropriations Bill authorized $290 million for loss assistance payments to eligible dairy producers.

"Through this program, eligible dairy producers will receive economic assistance that will help stabilize their operations during these tough economic times," said Vilsack. "I have personally heard from hundreds of struggling dairy farmers from all across our country who have been hit hard by declining prices over the past year, and now, we'll be able to offer them help."

Milk prices declined substantially through early-to-mid-2009, with the national price for milk averaging $16.80 per hundredweight (cwt.) in the fourth quarter of 2008 and averaging $12.23 per cwt. in the first quarter of 2009, a 27-percent decline. On average, the price U.S. dairy producers received for milk marketed in the summer of 2009 was about half of what it cost them to produce milk.

"The dedicated employees of the Farm Service Agency deserve a great deal of credit for acting quickly to provide this critical assistance to America's dairy farmers," said Jim Miller, Under Secretary of USDA Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services.

Eligible producers will receive a one-time direct payment based on the amount of milk both produced and commercially marketed by their operation during the months of February through July 2009. Production information from these months will be used to estimate a full year's production for an operation to calculate the payments, using a 6-million pound per dairy operation limit.

Dairy producers who have production records at the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) county office because they participated in another FSA dairy program do not need to apply for the program. FSA will use existing production records for February through July 2009 to calculate and issue their payments.

Producers who have not provided production data for those months to FSA, and have not already been contacted by FSA to provide such data, have 30 days, until Jan. 19, 2010, to apply. FSA officials estimate that more than 95 percent of eligible producers will receive benefits without having to fill out a new application.

A national per hundred weight payment rate will be determined by dividing the available funding of $290 million, less a reserve established by FSA, divided by the total pounds of eligible milk production approved for payment. Based on current information, FSA estimates that 875 million cwt. of milk production will be eligible for payment. The reserve will cover new applicants and appeals. The expected payment rate is approximately $0.32 per cwt.

To be eligible for DELAP, the dairy producer and the dairy operation in which the producer has a share:

• Must have produced milk in the United States and marketed milk commercially at any time from February through July 2009;
• Must have milk production data for those months;
• Must certify to all milk production produced and marketed by the dairy operation during that time.

Also, any dairy producer who has an annual average adjusted gross nonfarm income of more than $500,000 for calendar years 2006 through 2008 is not eligible for DELAP.

For more information and eligibility requirements on the new DELAP program, please visit your local FSA county office or www.fsa.usda.gov.

Maybe Facebook Likes Me After All

Check it out here

"We’re all big fans of strong bones at Facebook and we will soon revise our promotions guidelines to lift the complete ban on dairy and simply prohibit giving dairy away as a prize."

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DELAP

Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment Program

Some fairly fresh info HERE.

And HERE is some PDF governmentese on the situation. There is real desperation in the dairy world despite some minor (but welcome) increases in the farmgate milk price.