local farmer comitted suicide

This is simply the fact big conglomerates seem to make so the small farmer can do nothing but chase their tail, with more debt to maintain production. But than does not make profit to pay debt. This has been going on for a long time.
Debt is hard to get out of. And one of the most stressful things. And main reason for couples to argue. Debt is the Devil.
Man becomes a slave to his debt owner.
The whole world has been using Fiat money for too long and is starting to become a festering wound.
Bless all the farmers in this country, and all other countries.

 

Farming... the only industry where you purchase everything you use at retail but have to sell everything you produce at wholesale.

 

Prayers for the family, this is such a tragedy. It is a shame that it is so hard for farmers everywhere to make it. The heyday of dairy production in Alabama was in the 1940s. In '44, for example, there were 100,000 dairy farms. Today, you'll find just 35 with 7,000 total cows. I think too that a lot of farmers were squeezed out by big market productions. Family home farms are going to be like dinosaurs.

 

A good friend of mine was a dairyman for 20 years and was always on the brink of bankruptcy. His wife wanted him to sell the farm and find something else to do, but he hung on.

About 12 years ago I told him he should sell off his Holstein herd and buy Jersey cows for making specialty cheeses because their milk has a much higher fat content and living in the heart of wine country, people go crazy for good cheese, especially locally made. I learned about the cows and the cheese from an old family friend when I was a kid in Ohio who just made it for friends and family, but it was some outstanding cheese. He looked into and decided to go for it. Last year they grossed $12 million in sales, and they kept their farm. Needless to say, I am always well stocked with cheese. He convinced a few other dairymen to do the same a few years ago and they formed a co-op. All of them are doing pretty well these days. Too bad the poor fella that killed himself didn't look for alternatives before ending his life. There is always a better way to do something.

 

One of my cousins in the old country, a dairy farmer, killed himself about seven years ago. It's the same all over the world. There's no money in farming. There's money in selling niche, premium farm products, but if you produce commodities, forget it. Yet people keep on farming, often till it's all gone.

When I grew up in the '70s, there were 81 orchards in our town. Today, there's 8. Between those numbers are 70 family stories of depression, divorce, bankruptcy, family diasporas, family feuds, men with crushed spirits.

Yet, people keep on farming. Often 'till it's all gone.

 

There are so many issues that can arise and regulations in it too how it's grown and shipped sometimes and then their chance the price of the crop value drops and you lost your arse. Most farmers take out constant loans just stay afloat repairs, products like fertilizer. Some times you can minimize it. Then there's those dumb arse people in their mud runners drive into one them fields tear your whole harvest I am certain someone will lose there lives rather easy if they catch them with a shotgun.

 

Must have not been one of those California dairy farmers that moved to the Texas Panhandle with their insane amount of funds buying out small family farms and basically taking over the entire region. Yeah, I'm talking about you Faria Dairy.

 

I hope you got a plan b already in place.
That's your livelihood dying a slow death out there.

 

Man that is horrible

 

I can’t recall the name of the dairy, but back in the summer of 2013 they milked all the cows at a dairy outside Tulare CA, we loaded them on 18 trucks, and scooted to Cimarron KS to the dairy north of town. Less than 24 hours they were on the ground and getting milked at their new home.

 

This hits home hard - was pallbearer at 3 funerals in the last 4 years — #1 was my buddy that owned a sporting goods/bait shop/gun smith store — got squeezed out by a big outfit that will probably go bankrupt this year; #2 was a 4th generation rancher that lost it when he was sued out of existence by the BLM; #3 was a 3rd generation contractor that sold to a national outfit and drank/drugged until he pulled the trigger. Told them all not to give the pricks the satisfaction. But it’s a brave new world — right.