Support your local dairy farm

By DAVE WILLIAMS

Looking toward the future of agriculture in the Northeast can only be achieved by taking a journey back in time to understand where we have come from.

The local dairy business began to thrive in the late 1890s, due to the rail connections to New York City. As we passed through the decades since then, we went from horses to tractors, from milking cows by hand to milking machines. In the 1940s many farms only milked 15 to 25 cows. Today, the average herd is around 80 cows. In Pennsylvania, the average herd in the 1890s only produced 4,000 pounds of milk a year. Today, production on the order of 20,000 to 25,000 pounds a year is not uncommon.

Even though New York City’s milk demand is greater than ever, our local dairy farmers are on the endangered species list. The reason is simple: they do not receive enough money for their product. There are many reasons for this, but the one that is most important is the price that retailers pay for milk. The dairy farmer receives around $1.25 per gallon of milk, and last week at our local Wal-Mart, milk was selling for $3.65 a gallon. At the same time, the dairy farmer has the greatest portion of expenses and labor needed to produce the product. To look into the future of dairy farming, we need to pay cost of production, plus a reasonable profit, to the dairy farmers if the industry is to survive. I also personally believe that all milk being sold to retailers should be set at one price, which would stop the giant retail stores from exerting leverage on the co-ops to discount the price of milk, a discount that comes directly out of the pockets of the dairy farmers.

Looking forward, we will see many changes in the great industry of agriculture. Renewable fuels are going to play a major role. The production of switch grass will not only supply us with inexpensive ethanol, but will swell the income of our farmers. Bio-diesel will also be made from agricultural products, releasing us from the foreign oil dependency. Satellite technology will be used for purposes from spreading fertilizers to harvesting crops. The poultry industry will be return to this area with automation beyond our ability to imagine. Manure will be turned into granulated fertilizers or methane for fuel. Small windmills for the production of electricity will dot the countryside, much the same as they did many years ago to pump water. We will have year-round farmer’s markets, giving everyone the opportunity to buy directly from the farmers in a green environment. Yes, the family farmer has survived through floods and droughts, through low prices and high production costs, and yet they still supply us with the highest quality and most inexpensive food in the world.

Please support your family farmers for a brighter future for all of us.

(Dave Williams is the State Director of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.)

This bi-weekly column is a part of a valley-wide initiative to encourage an engaged citizenry. For a complete archive of visioning statements and for more about the visioning initiative visit www.upperdelaware.com.