Dairy Farms

[DRB]

Are dairy farmers in other area of the country having as much trouble financially as the farmers in southeast Louisiana? Low milk prices?

 

[dun]

They've been seriously hurting for the last couple of years. The price has rebounded a little, but if they're real lucky they're about breaking even. Most have expanded by about 20% just to be able to keep they're heads above water. I'm just really glad there are understanding bankers.

dun

Are dairy farmers in other area of the country having as much trouble financially as the farmers in southeast Louisiana? Low milk prices?

 

[Jake]

The newest dairy here is losing something like $1800 a day just in cow herd maintainance costs that's not counting other expenses such as employees and bills. Needless to say they are going bankrupt. Seems all the large dairies are hurting.

 

[Craig-TX]

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here, but dairy farming is a textbook example of how the government fouls up everything it touches. Dairy farmers are some of the hardest working people I've ever known. The government has "helped" them so many years that now they are slaves. It's a shame. Getting the Washington price fixers, environmentalists, etc. out of the business would be extremely painful for those good folks but in the long run it would be the best thing for their families and businesses.

Craig-TX

 

[Anonymous]

yep, hurtin all over the country. not too many expansions up here in new york lately the bankers have finally begun to realize more cows may not be the answer every time. many have had to refinance and eat up equity just to stay in business.when the price started coming up a little last fall that helped and hopefully it will continue for a few more months. higher beef prices have helped also but on the other hand grain is thru the roof, everyone wants to charge fuel surcharges, and taxes haven't backed off so its kind of a trade-off. normally there are a lot of heifers going south and west from ny and pennsylvania but even those orders have slowed to a trickle lately. i wholeheartedly agree with craig the gov't has done nothing but screw up the dairy industry. by holding the prices down, allowing imports of unknown quality in, (gee that couldbe said about how many different ag commodities?) and by catering to the interests of the processing end of the industry they in a sense have made slaves out of all farmers not just dairy. now that we only represent .9% of the population we no longer are important enough to the political machine. when i was in college the economics prof said "how goes rural america so goes the country" maybe if the farms and small towns they support were better off the rest of the country would be also. boy does this sound depressing to all of you to? must be the day we had -2 this am and wind and i for one am getting real sick of winter. hey you guys out west send some heat this way PLEASE!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

It isn't all bad news for the dairy farmers. Cheese has been up every day for the last two months. The milk futures has been jumping way up. I know dairymen who in the last couple weeks have contracted their milk for over 16 dollars. I heard rumors of one who locked in at over 17 but I think it might just be a rumor. Either way $16 is well into the black for them and certainly better than the $10.50 they were getting a year ago.

Dave

 

[Ellie May]

That's one thing I don't get. Because I know alot of people drink milk & eat cheese & ice cream and such. But they aren't getting much. (Well except for people who are lactoseintolerant)
Ellie May

 

[Anonymous]

dave is right about the cheese market only problem is the way we get paid that won't show up on the milk check for another two months. by that time the market may level off or down turn and we will never see the peak. our whole pricing system is loosely based on the cheese price at the chicago merc. exchange so basically it is the same as the nystock exchange any change in the wind can effect the market. when the gov't did order reform in 2000 (i think) they took the old m-w series pricing which was very antiquated and replaced it with a system which can be easily and has been manipulated by some of the big companies like kraft and dean foodsbut it is what we are stuck with until some genius comes up with a better idea that will make everybody happy and you know how easy it is to please everyone!

 

[Anonymous]

dave is right about the cheese market only problem is the way we get paid that won't show up on the milk check for another two months. by that time the market may level off or down turn and we will never see the peak. our whole pricing system is loosely based on the cheese price at the chicago merc. exchange so basically it is the same as the nystock exchange any change in the wind can effect the market. when the gov't did order reform in 2000 (i think) they took the old m-w series pricing which was very antiquated and replaced it with a system which can be easily and has been manipulated by some of the big companies like kraft and dean foodsbut it is what we are stuck with until some genius comes up with a better idea that will make everybody happy and you know how easy it is to please everyone!

Now we need a system to work on Tyson and IBP. These corps are just as bad as Tyco and Enron!!! They have so much power that they literally have Capitol Hill under their wing..... If something they don't like, they just mandate it and rid of the problem.... its really bad.....

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Give us some facts to support your accusation.

 

[dale]

seems pretty coincedental that every time the price gets up around $17/cwt all of a sudden a company will "find" a warehouse full of cheese they didn't even know they had. 12 mill lbs. discovered in late 2001, or as happened in october of 2002 an employee of kraft decided they had enough inventory to go the holidays and all the way till the super bowl (the biggest cheese consumption day of the year) so he dumped 22 train cars of block cheese on the merc. of course there were no takers the market crashed. we ended up loosing over $6/cwt in one month on the milk check. that would be the same as if you had a regular job working in a shop making parts (or whatever) and the boss came in and said we have been pushing you to make X amount for a while now and we have paid you Y amount but you did what we asked so well that now we can't sell all of it so for the next 6 months we are only going to pay you $12 /hr instead of 18, good job keep it up. a while ago there was talk of captive supplies in the beef market same idea here there is no mandatory reporting of inventory, therefore no penalties for not or for misreporting stocks. so it is easy to see why it can be and is manipulated by the companies large enough to hold inventory. the cooperatives are of no value to the dairy producers because they work for the benefit of the processors not the producers.

 

[Anonymous]

Why didn't they sell it cheap to UNESCO or Oxfam America or other organizations (like Red Cross)? I can see why we are the most wasteful country in the world... We wasted things to drive the montary system.... makes me sick.......

seems pretty coincedental that every time the price gets up around $17/cwt all of a sudden a company will "find" a warehouse full of cheese they didn't even know they had. 12 mill lbs. discovered in late 2001, or as happened in october of 2002 an employee of kraft decided they had enough inventory to go the holidays and all the way till the super bowl (the biggest cheese consumption day of the year) so he dumped 22 train cars of block cheese on the merc. of course there were no takers the market crashed. we ended up loosing over $6/cwt in one month on the milk check. that would be the same as if you had a regular job working in a shop making parts (or whatever) and the boss came in and said we have been pushing you to make X amount for a while now and we have paid you Y amount but you did what we asked so well that now we can't sell all of it so for the next 6 months we are only going to pay you $12 /hr instead of 18, good job keep it up. a while ago there was talk of captive supplies in the beef market same idea here there is no mandatory reporting of inventory, therefore no penalties for not or for misreporting stocks. so it is easy to see why it can be and is manipulated by the companies large enough to hold inventory. the cooperatives are of no value to the dairy producers because they work for the benefit of the processors not the producers.