Alliances to Remain Profitable
Clark County Home
Farmers Should Rethink Giving Up Dairy Operations
| June is Dairy Month and I must admit that I have a fondness in my heart for dairy farms. My first connection with a farm was a family friend, Edgar Elliotts. Edgar's forty acre farm, a half-mile from my house, consisted of raising tobacco and milking seven Jersey cows by hand. Edgar, his wife, Alice and his daughter, Donna would milk the cows while his son Eddie and I would do more important stuff like wrestle, fish and tease the Bantay hen with one chick. In the past four decades the dairy industry has undergone huge changes. Recently, I ran across a publication at the Chamber of Commerce that was published in 1924 about business and industry in Springfield and Clark County. In the section on agriculture there was a picture of dairy cows in a pasture. The caption for the picture said: "scenes like the above may be seen on practically any Clark County farm". In fact, the agriculture statistics book of 1940 reveals that in Clark County there were 1769 farms that had two or more dairy cows. By the 1950's there were still an abundance of dairy farms. In 1960 I had a beef breeding project in the Georgetown General Livestock 4-H Club. All three of my advisors were dairymen. This all began to change in the mid 60's with the adoption of a cash grain crop called soybeans and an interest by farm families of not being "married to the cows" 365 days a year. Cash grain farming became the norm instead of the exception. Today, those 1769, 1940 vintage Clark County farms have consolidated to 740 larger farms in which 80 per cent of them have no livestock. The 1769 dairy farms now number only five that sell milk. There is so few I will name them: Thomas and Call's of South Charleston; Young's and Grimm's in Mad River Township and Hardacre's, the only one north of Route 40. Oh yes, there is one other dairy: Reiter who has to rely on milk brought in sometimes twelve hours away. We have gone from almost everyone integrating crops and livestock to almost no one doing it. As a result of putting all our eggs in the cash grain basket, agriculture in the whole midwest has fallen on hard times. Cash grain farming has seldom been profitable since 1980. My definition of profitable is being able to pay your bills, pay down the mortgage and /or buy the farm next door, replace your machinery on a regular basis and not have to send family members to work in town to pay bills. Cash grain has caused a lot of pain. The day has come when farmers need to get a little cow muck on their boots. In the April issue of Successful Farming, the editor-in-chief, Loren Kruse asks the question, "Where's the meter on your pain scale?" In other words, how bad does it have to get before one will fight back by adopting change? Loren says there are five ways to fight back: (1) Join a group that fits your beliefs; (2) Call your authorities and leaders with suggestions; (3) Ask the government for more money; (4) Ask the government to eliminate farm payments to weed-out inefficient producers and (5) Make a deliberate effort to participate in value-added ag within the next 18 months. So what is the answer for pain with grain? The good new is there are answers. I like Kruse's number five, value added. We have several producers doing this. In the dairy industry, Young's Jersey Dairy is a great example of going straight to consumers like many of our farm markets, which are growing and selling fruits and vegetables. The green industry (horticulture) is very profitable. The answer for some grain farmers lies in what most people have "written off" a long time ago: Dairy Farming. Today, one of the most profitable enterprises is a large dairy. The Dutch have seen the profit potential and are seizing it from Americans who are afraid of perceived risk. Rittal and Honda both saw the fertile fields of Ohio, while complacent Americans sat back and became employees. Last week, I toured a Dutch Dairy in Wyandot County. I asked the young dutchmen what was his biggest challenge. His answer was "learning to speak English". Grain farmers, you already have this challenge accomplished. You don't have to milk the cows! Ten grain farmers can go together and build this dairy plant and hire people to milk. You can still drive the tractor, raise alfalfa and corn, and create your own cheap fertilizer! OSU enterprise budgets show that a 2400 cow dairy can net over a million dollars per year enough income for ten families to live on. If we don't build them, the Dutch will. Maybe I can see this potential because my grandmother Hannah came from Holland in 1900 for opportunity in America. Ohio ranks 50th out of 50 states in the size of dairy herds. Everyday, small dairies exit the business. The future is large ones where one is not married to the cows. Dannon has already left the state because they said we could not supply the milk. If we don't act, the cheese industry will be next, then Reiter, but we will always have Young's! June is Dairy Month. It's time for more profitable dairy farms. If not you, then my relatives from the Netherlands will be the future farmers of Ohio. Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868 Updated: August 2001 |