Dairy farms were in crisis in 2007 – and they still are

By TOM KANE

WAYNE COUNTY, PA AND SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY - As early as 2006, it became evident that the dairy farms in the area and the nation were seriously hurting because of low milk prices coming to farmers and the high costs of operation.

Beginning last February, dairy farmers started calling for and attending meetings like never before. Farmers don’t have the freedom that many people do to take time out of their busy day, leave their work place and attend long meetings.

The February 2, 2007 meeting of 60 dairy farmers was held in Honesdale, PA and was attended by state senator Lisa Baker and state assemblywoman Sandra Major, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Dennis Wolff, state assemblyman Mike Peifer and U.S. Congressman Chris Carney.

A few days before, in Cobleskill, NY, nearly 400 dairy farmers attended a similar meeting.

The story was the same?low raw milk prices and the meteoric rise in the cost of operation. Fuel costs had doubled, the cost of feed was climbing in big jumps. Energy costs skyrocketed, as did all the other costs faced by farmers with no let-up in sight.

“[New York farmers] are facing the same problems as Pennsylvania farmers,” said Marianne Kiraly, Cornell University Extension Educator in Delaware County, NY at the Cobleskill meeting.

About 560 dairy farms closed down in New York State during 2006, she said.

“This could be the end of the small family farm,” said dairy farmer Brian Smith of Milanville, PA, who conducted the meeting.

For the remainder of 2007, dairy farmers were trying to be hopeful about lessening the odds against them. Because Congress was preparing for a new Farm Bill, many expected that their plight would be answered. Here was a chance to have the new legislation link the price of milk that farmers get with the cost of production.

It wasn’t meant to be.

“The big cats won’t allow it,” said dairyman and agriculture journalist John Bunting of Delhi, NY. “The large co-ops and the large food companies and food processors are making too much profit under the present system. They would have to agree to take a considerable loss if such legislation went through, and they’re not ready to do that.”

The Farm Bill passed the House and the Senate this month without any reference to the disparity between what farmers get for the milk they produce and what it costs them to produce it, despite the efforts of PA senators Robert Casey and Arlen Specter, who drafted an amendment with the connection explicitly stated.

That amendment was never approved in the Senate.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” said dairy farmer Joe Davitt of Waymart, PA.