America's dairy farms disappearing amid rising costs, pricing issues

They still have a couple around here (dfa for creamland coming out of south belen ) but almost all the little ones i hauled out of 10 years ago are gone . Most of them dont even have people there anymore , just a weekly maint crew for some reason

 

You live in the area ? I'm from Veguita

 

Yeah up the road in abq

 

Still quite a few small dairy farms in Vermont. Many have been in the family a long time. We learned to know some of them. They aren’t making much money, just doing it because it’s family tradition. They said the trucking is what kills them the most. Costs so much to get milk hauled. This is a small dairy near my home in Bath New Hampshire.

 

Yep , i think that and the drought we had ( have ) caused a lot of the little ones to give it up . A couple of the managers i talked to said it cost more for feed and transportation than what they got paid for the milk !!

 

Here's a good one... The last 3 years before he switched to beef he planted 30 acres beside the cow pens to grass and opened the gate from the pens into once it was established. He did thus because he could get a premium price if the cows were classified as "free range, grass fed"... To qualify for this the cows had to have free access to growing grass. Once he opened the gates from the pens into the grass field he qualified.

In the three years he had it setup this way the only time I saw cows in the grass was when they were forced onto it. And 30 mins later they would all be back in the pens. Aftet the first monthbof pushing the cows out onto the grass 3 times a week he quit pushing them out there. Never saw a cow out there again the rest of the 3 years. But he still met the requirements for the premium price.

The stupid things some people pay a premium for... The milk didnt change one bit, but it was suddenly worth more. All those fancy labels they put on products in the dairy and meat department at the grocery store dont mean crap, just more expensive for the same exact thing.

 

Reminds me of the walmart beef they used to have in Ok , Tx . Thought that was hilarious.
About eight years ago , walmart tried it's hand at name brand beef and so they'd select beef out in the pens and ranches and wah- laa , walmart beef. No special breeding or anything special , but they were marketing it as better beef. Didn't really last long.

 

Like they say. It’s a hipster thing, you wouldn’t understand.

 

grass fed dairy doesn't put higher price on dairy cow. Its fixed price by the co op when they sell it to slaughter. But the diff between grass fed beefcow and grainfed is grain fed is sold by weight on hoof. Grass feed is sold by the meat after cut up. It is a nice market, but usually a smaller market. My sisters cows were sold in stores that had organic produce and free range meats.

 

Feed to meat conversion is imo most important no matter for sale or personal . I will say black sells better around here angus or angus hereford cross . Dont have any exp with Brahma or longhorn. I will say a fella i know lost his butt on beefmaster about 20yrs ago , couldnt give'em away . Slight exaggeration but you get it .