June is when Americans celebrate National Dairy Farmer month here in the United States. “It seems kind of ironic,” said long time dairy farmer David Fitch, “Because honestly, there is not a whole lot to celebrate these days. Fitch and his wife Robin have been in the dairy farming business for nearly twenty years, the past few years in the Cedarville area. As the cost of farm maintenance and operation continues to rise, and the milk price per 100 weight is at best staying fairly level, at worst, dropping considerably, have left many of the dairy farmers across New York State, and around the country struggling just to keep their heads above water. According to Fitch, the price dairy farmers are receiving now per hundredweight of milk is the same as it was in the 1970’s. Farmers throughout Herkimer County are hurting, finding that thirty years ago they made more money with just 35 milking cows than they can now with a herd double that size. “Something here just doesn’t match up,” said Fitch, “We are making less and less money for our milk and milk products, and the consumers are paying the same slightly inflated prices that they have been paying. So where is the rest of that money going?” They have had little success in finding answers to that very
Throughout the past few several years, small family dairy farms have been going under, unable to keep up with the much larger agri-business farms. This unfortunate trend continues. “Small farms -- family farms that have been operating for generations, are quickly becoming a dying breed,” continued Fitch, “And big business farming is stepping in and truly destroying the balance of things.” The convoluted process of culling cows, between 100,000 and 200,000 per year are killed in order to control milk production and prices, have, through the ripple effect, caused damage to other industry. Beef cattle farmers are now facing income loss as the meat from culled dairy cattle floods the market.
The formula used by the government to pay dairy farmers for their production is a complicated thing, but, according to Fitch, these days, with a dairy farm that has approximately 65 cows, nets about $1 per day per cow. $65 dollars a day does not go a very long way to feeding and providing for your family or your farm. Much of dairy farming requires long term investment, and gambling on the cooperation of both the country’s economy as well as of the herd itself. Calves, explained Fitch, require an investment of about $2,000 to raise, once you figure in veterinary and feed costs. Even now, with the sexed semen, which can determine a cow’s gender from the start, and a farmer can, by utilizing this sexing procedure, produce a herd of female cows, heifers, who will ultimately, they hope, grow healthy and strong, and able to move right into the milking cycle once they have birthed a calf of their own. But this process can take up to two years for the cycle to complete. For the farmer, whose initial outlay of money to procure these calves, those two years can seem like an eternity. “We are not asking for much,” said Fitch, “Just some relief from the burden of not knowing how you are going to feed your family and procure the things necessary to keep the farm up and running.
I walked with David Fitch over to his barn, where the calves were in their stalls, in the distance on the gentle slope of the hill, the cows grazed peacefully in the afternoon sunshine. He pointed to the large silo, standing more than two stories tall, and said to me, “Do you see this silo? It has always held the feed for our animals. Right now, it stands empty. The equipment needed to fill the silo is pricey, and the seed itself is even pricier. “On average, to prepare, seed and fertilize a field to sustain even a small sized herd of dairy cattle can cost well over $20,000,” he said with a sad sigh, “We are reaching the place where we have to make a choice, to either try and stick it out as we move deeper into the red, or to just give up farming altogether.” Farming is a way of life. Not a lifestyle choice for the faint of heart, it requires hard work, a lot of blood, sweat and tears. It is a life that farmers like the Fitches have grown to love. “I can’t even imagine doing anything else,” he said.
Organizations like Pro Ag continue to fight at the government level to get the voices of dairy farmers heard. With the support of Pennsylvania Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, they continue to press for the government to rework its formula for paying dairy farmers for the products they produce. They have made some headway, but there is a long way to go. In the meantime, we all come just a little bit closer to realizing the horrible potential of losing the dairy industry in the United States. During the past fifty years, thousands of dairy farmers have been forced to close down their operations, unable to compete in the growing market of large scale farming. According to Fitch, in the United States there are now less than 65,000 dairy farms left in operation. “So many people placed a lot of hope in the government’s promised stimulus package,” said Fitch, “But ironically, the stimulus plan never once mentioned agriculture as part of its program.” But dairy farmers around the country are banding together to increase their efforts to preserve their way of life.
Cedarville —
