I really grew attached to this piece of land.
In 1970 when I moved here, it was 127 dairies in this county. Now there's only
11. The last thing I ever want to be my life is a dairy farmer.
How many people work 365 days and work 12 and 14-hour days to do what they they
feel is necessary to produce a food? a product?
This generation, this this segment that we're in of dairy farming is really
really tough, so to lose neighbors to lose friends it's scary. It's terrifying.
It's disheartening. It's a whole lot of different varieties of emotion that go
into what's happening to us and I wouldn't trade it for anything in my
lifetime of growing up to it, but I'd sure trade this segment of my life for
years past, because years past have been fair.
2014 was kind of an exciting year for dairy farmers across the state,
across the country. We had all-time highs for that year. We were selling milk at
$28 a hundredweight, so a lot of farmers took advantage and did improvements on
their farm. For us, we were able to build our new free stall barn that we housed
our cows in today. It was a great improvement. It's made our herd
excel in production.
Soon after 2014 it was when the downturn of the dairy industry started to happen.
Prices started to come down at a at a pretty decent pace. We're not even
close to $28 now.
I thought I'd be able to retire it somewhere in my 70th
birthday, but I don't think that's gonna happen now. I think I'm gonna have to
work in an additional five or ten years, because there is no margin in this dairy
operation any longer. You know we're operating at a deficit.
It's been rough. I mean...just it's a good life, but it just got to a point
now where it's no fun no more or you just working for nothing.
You don't get nothing for anything you sell.
In the last 30 days, we had employees that have
been with us ten years and we had to tell them that we couldn't afford them
any longer.
It was extremely hard. They pretty much seen me grow up, so saying,
"hey, you gotta go." It was tough. It was hard. It's been good, we've enjoyed it, but
surely miss them as well. We work hard every single day. We aren't only working
to have an income, but we're working hard to make sure that we have a safe
affordable food in the grocery store for our consumers.
I hope things turn around quick... milk prices come on back up I can stay
in it. I don't want to get out of it, but it's getting to a point where I don't have much choice.
The average age of a u.s. farmer is 58 years old I'm 24, so it's hard for the
young generation to get in. So it's nerve-racking when you are--we're
getting very little for our product to go, "hey, can I make it work?
Can I do it?" But I absolutely want to try my hardest to make it happen.
I can't deny that it makes you feel good to be the connection between my family
farm and the consumers enjoyment. You know, we thought we'd employed three
or four people and then we got 70. It's good for my business and good for my
family and good for the community, so dairy is very important and we hope
that it last to the next generation.