In this time of crisis many farmer’s livelihoods are on the line. Everyday farmers are turning on the lights in their barns knowing that they may not be able pay their electric bill. The question of selling the farm pervades dinner conversations, and families are being ripped apart by the stress and anxiety that only seems to mount. Lending institutions are cutting off lines of credit as I write this blog, and some farm families, ironically, are looking into social programs as a means of putting food on their tables. Unfortunately, other farmers have had to make the hard decision to exit the dairy business all together.
It is within this context that dairy farmers are coming together to brainstorm ideas for how we should go about resolving the current dairy crisis. As you can imagine emotion tends to bleed into the conversation and discussion becomes heated at times. However, one thing that everyone seems to agree upon is that something needs to be done.
Over the last several months I have attended several local meetings in order to educate myself more on the challenges and opportunities that exist in this time of uncertainty. Many ideas were presented by dairy farmers and a lot of “how to’s” were discussed. Some farmers offered the suggestion that mandatory supply management was the way to go, as long as the government didn’t intervene. Others thought that the market would rebound on it’s own and we should stay the course and see what happens. Still others thought we should revert back to some of the more traditional ways of managing dairy herds.
Other ideas were also presented including a tiered pricing system that would allow a dairy farmer to get a certain price for a predetermined quantity of milk. Once a threshold was met, the dairy farmer would get a lesser amount for any additional milk that they produced. Another interesting idea was that all farmers participating in the government MILC program should be required to sign up for Cooperatives Working Together (CWT). Yet other ideas focused on raising quality standards, reducing imports from other countries, adapting Canada’s quota system, and culling the national dairy herd.
In a recent U.S. Dairy Outlook Brief by Cameron Thraen (State Specialist of Dairy Markets and Policy at The Ohio State University) shrinking the size of the U.S. dairy herd by another 100 to 140 thousand animals seems to be a logical step to getting the dairy sector back on track. One of the biggest reasons for Thraen’s recommendation is because much of our export markets have dried up due to the larger, global economic crisis. People in other countries no longer have the disposable income to purchase milk and milk products from the United States, and as a result there is no outlet for the extra supply from our 9,126 million milk cows.
If interested, click on this link to read more.
I’m not sure if Thraen’s recommendation is the silver bullet to solving the problem, however, it is data that is needed for making the best decision for how to move forward. Right now however the dairy industry is kind of like two freight train engines that have collided on the track. One train is the status quo to keep milk production high. While the other train is the complicated milk pricing system. Until the mess is cleaned up, prices will continue to be volatile and milk production will seemingly follow its same trajectory as small farms become collateral damage and big farms look for more opportunities to grow.
Although I’m not an expert on the dairy industry, nor a dairy farmer, I am concerned about the implications of losing so many of our family farms across our nation. I’m also concerned about the quality of milk and milk products that are being imported from other countries, which often times have less regulations and minimal environmental standards. I’m concerned for our rural communities and the businesses that rely on the success of our farms. As more farms disappear from the countryside, we have less ability to produce food for our country, and ultimately less freedom as we become more dependent on other nations.