I inherited my love for agriculture from my grandfather, Tully B. Caldwell.  My grandfather was a well-respected, talented Lincoln County, Kentucky farmer who was known for his skills at building homes.  He learned those skills from his father who helped him clear a 120-acre forest to begin farming on his own in an area now known as Pond.

Once the forest was harvested, it was now time to put that timber to good use by building barns, fences, outbuildings and a large two-story home.  It was the building of the home that gave grandpa the skills to build many homes around Waynesburg.

 Then the Great Depression hit hard, not only rural Kentucky, but also all of America.  When there was no work to be found locally to feed a family of eight, it was grandpa’s carpenter skills that enabled him to find work in Alabama building homes for the Tennessee Valley Authority.  My grandmother and her six children maintained the farm while Grandpa would spend months at a time in Alabama but always making it back for tobacco harvest.

 However, it was farming that Grandpa considered his primary occupation.  By the time I was born and remember vacationing in the summer at his farm, he had retired from building houses.  He received from the Governor of Kentucky an award recognizing him as a Kentucky Colonel.  The recognition was not for building homes that would last a century, but recognition for his production skills as a farmer.  He raised horned Hereford cattle and his feeder calves brought the highest prices at the Garrard County stockyards one fall prompting the Governor to recognize him.  Probably the only award he ever won in his lifetime.

 If Tully Caldwell was forty and alive today, he probably would be a full-time homebuilder.  In today’s agricultural economic climate, Grandpa’s 120-acre tobacco, beef farm would not be viable.  Not because he did not possess the production skills needed to compete, but because of intense world competition.  He could not have sustained the number of cattle and tobacco acres needed to generate enough income to feed his family and pay the taxes on his 120-acre hill farm.

 Which finally brings me to today’s issue:  Why do dairy farms have to have 2400 cows to compete?

 This summer I was visiting Mad River Township farmer, Kevin Welsheimer, who asked the question many people have lately:  “Why do we have to build these new dairies for 2400 cows instead of four to six new dairies of 400-600 cows each?”  That’s a fair question so here is my attempt to answer it.

 I grew up in Brown County in an era in which almost every farm had livestock.  In 1964, I was a FFA student with beef projects.  I would pay market prices for a load of corn, which cost me $1.30 per bushel.  As I write this article, elevators are paying $1.65 per bushel for a load of corn.  That is an increase of 27%.  That same year, I could have bought a new car for $1,800.00 and farmland for $150.00 per acre.  Farmland prices have risen 2000% and cars 1500% since 1964.

 America is no longer the world’s great exporter.  We have tremendous competition from countries that were non-existent in 1964 in export markets such as Brazil, China, and Argentina.  In South America, cropland sells for $75.00 to $300.00 per acre and labor is almost nothing compared to U.S. wages.  As a result, world competition has driven down profits per unit, acre, sow, cow, etc.

 Technology advances have also contributed to increased farm competition, in not only the world, but also here at home.  In 1964, a farmer would spend 13 hours of labor producing a field crop.  Today, large producers can grow corn averaging three hours of labor per acre and soybeans with only two.

 Agriculture has become specialized.  Knowledge has grown so rapidly that farmers need to specialize in producing crops, milk, or sows.  Especially in livestock, those who only farrow hogs or milk cows are so much more efficient than general farms.  Their pigs per litter per year and milk production per cow may double those on general farms.

 OSU production budgets show losses for average producers in pork, dairy, and beef and profits of only $30.00 per acre for field crops.  With narrow margins like this, it takes many sows, cows, and acres to feed a family today and pay the taxes, insurance, and college tuition.

 The demand by the public for environmental regulations has also driven farming to large units.  It takes a lot of cows and sows to pay for manure and storm water storage facilities.  A man with 100 sows or cows cannot afford them.  These fixed costs need to be spread over many units.

 Economies of scale is real my friend.  The larger you are, the more competitive you are.  If you don’t believe me, look at Wal-Mart.  They don’t believe their current stores will be competitive in the future.  Stores only ten years old are being replaced with larger ones called Super Wal-Marts.

 Margins in dairy production are so narrow it’s going to take 1500 to 4000 cows to pay for expensive U.S. labor and environmental regulations.  Unlike Wal-Mart, our dairies cannot tear buildings down in ten years to build larger ones.  The dairies built today must be positioned to compete twenty years from now.

 This is but a few of the many economic reasons that have driven Ohio farm numbers to decline by 50% since 1964.

 Tully Caldwell was a great man.  However, his farm would never have survived today in today’s current economic climate.  In fact, it sets idle.  Without sustained growth many of today’s farms will set idle, become part of another mega producer, or, unfortunately, become part of the urban scene.