Sure is bad times for dairy farmers. I see it 1st hand living near a lot of farmers. The younger generation isn't able to make it. I don't know what's going to happen with farms & farmers. 1 farmer I was talking to said a milk plant actually sent a suicide prevention letter to it's farmers.

Here's 1 article that sums up some of the issues for conventional & organic dairy farmers.
https://www.google.com/amp/lacrossetribu...b8f8f0.amp.html

Big corporate farms are easier to control than many small farms. That's the jist of it.

Trapping and farming have some strange similarities. When the prices are good everyone thinks they can do it. When the prices tank only those who can maximize there productivity and minimize there cost will be just fine. People have a hard time when the price is high to buckle down pay off debt and prepare for the dark times. Don't go out and buy things you really don't need just because you can.... I just watched my neighbor build a new 2 million dollar state of the art parlor because there old one was shot. Those who prepared for times like this will be just fine.

I heard walmart has their own farms? Is that why they are 1.40 a gallon vs the small local grocery at 2.75 or 3.00? Same with eggs. Wally world is about 50 cents and local is 2 bucks.

What FlyingFinn said is definitely the case here in France. Small to medium dairy farmers all over France are losing money every day and have been for years due to imported milk from Germany and Poland.

Sad to see, but the government has done little to help.

Pete

Im doing my part. I drink 1 gallon a day. Big glass in the morn, milk with my lunch, milk with dinner, and milk on my end-table as i watch TV, reload shells, fletch arrows or tinker with traps.
Probably why im fat as a toad.

I bought a gallon last week, at Kroger, for 99 cents. Yesterday day I bought a gallon, at Aldi, for 99 cents. It looks like 99 cents a gallon is the price around here.

Same here Keith - Kroger has been .99 a gallon here in Fairborn, but in Circleville it is higher according to my sisters. Can't remember the exact amount. Just know what it is here. A gallon lasts us a little over a week.

Here in the very opposite of your last sentence is true. Government has been trying to 'help' farmers of every stripe for generations. Their involvement, no surprise, has made things worse.

I farmed most of my life ,the milk prices were bad. Had to use my mechanical no how to fix every thing .Could not take to local dealers ,because to costly. If you happen to trap on some dairy farms ,ask what can you do to help out a little. Might be one day here or there. Just my thoughts. Nute

That is what my Cousins did; mu Great Uncle raised 9 kids on that farm. When the two oldest took over they put up TWO blue Harvesor silos, a New 365 indoor barn for the holstiens because "pasture" wasn't good enough anymore.. then the Oliver and old Case got replaced with Case's biggest 4 wheel duley all around Monster Tractor. Those two did all that in the first few years of owning the Family farm. They Went Bankrupt in the 80's. Milk prices Are a Crime now.. but practices like that insure failure.

^ you see that a lot. Some have to have the biggest and the best and then bust. It is a scary thing if you look at the farming business in the next even 25 years. How many will be still around and how we get food. The new generation of farmers are getting fewer and I believe the love and passion for the business has been deteriorating for years. The up and coming farm kids have so many other great opportunities that farming will never offer. A sad thing is coming >>>>>

Probably one more generation and the small dairy guy, and I'm talking less than a 1000 cows, will be gone. Gov. is so entrenched in ag. I don't know how they will ever get out.

Same as it's always been big operators/corporations run over family business. Lot of smaller farms here are doing the organic thing. But even that is getting bigger probably be people run someone else over.

Mac

Tough job, tough hours very time demanding not for everyone had a buddy that was a baker same there tough hours!

I watched a History channel show once on Early American Farms, they were showing Huge opperations owned by British Lord's overseas. Opperations that were run with indentured Servants and Owned Managers. .... They said these Farms pre dated the Small single family farms . It was so long ago a I watched that that I forget much of the details.

Back in 1978, I remember that Milk prices were $8.00 a Hundredweight. At the same time, a gallon of Whole Milk sold for $1.51 a Gallon. Back in 1949, my Grandparents bought an abandoned 160+ Acre Dairy Farm. The house and Barns were all built back in 1945. The place was almost brand new. For whatever reason, the original owner could not make a go of it. My Grandparents kept the place until 1967, when they decided to retire. In those years, Milk ranged from $2.90 to no more than $3.20 a Hundredweight. The first three years , they worked that farm with a Team of Work Horses. Then they got the M, Around 1962 or 63 they got the 806. All those years , they Milked anywhere from 35 to 40 head of Ayrshires.


Today, that Dairy Farm is no longer a Dairy Farm. New owners found out the water table is just 3 to 5 feet below the surface.. New owners turned it into one of the largest Beer Hops farms in WNY!

Here is NE Oklahoma a gallon of milk is between $2.30-$3.50 depending on where and what brand.

The $.99/gallon milk does not reflect the actual cost of the milk. Big retailer will sell the milk at a loss just to get people in the door. Milk prices are kind of low right now but if you run/ran your farm well you should still make a living at it. A small farmer I know milks 40 and is able to support two families.

$1.99 here today