# Milk price



## endrow

Don't know if this is just scare tactic buttermilk buying cooperatives are saying production keeps going up Surplus is getting higher and higher they're throwing milk away constantly, add milk Market Should Crash by the end of the year back down to 10 or $11.. should this happen .In some areas it will affect the Haymarket.


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## endrow

Typo again,, don't know if this is scare tactic but our milk buying coop are saying


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## r82230

You sure don't see the price dropping at the store however.

Larry


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## NewBerlinBaler

In my area, it's already affected the hay market.

Gary


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## PaMike

The last couple of farms that sold went to dairy farmers. Apparently they cant afford hay cause they are buying multimillion dollar farms...


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## Widairy

Big dairies are just big businesses, outside investors and playing every government program that exists. My wife and I milk our 60 cows and at the current market rates are having difficulty keeping up with the bills, to the point where she is going to a job interview tomorrow to start working off of the farm. Right now there are small guys going out right and left. Heck I'm even looking at getting a factory job and if the markets get worse by a year from now the girls might have to go. As far as the hay markets here in central Wisconsin you can buy hay cheaper than making it. I've heard of 10 and 20 dollar big squares at auctions. Stuff in ag in my neck of the woods has little to no bright spots.


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## somedevildawg

At always goes back to those "programs" doesn't it.....it's in everything Ag and Forestry related it seems. A program for this, a program for that.......the big "players" know how to play the "game"....it's crazy I tell ya', this farming business......


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## endrow

PaMike said:


> The last couple of farms that sold went to dairy farmers. Apparently they cant afford hay cause they are buying multimillion dollar farms...


 you have to buy them when you see them. They know they would never have the opportunity to buy a farm fully equipped with robots Prime land good resale value if need be, when the milk markets are good.


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## endrow

Here in Central and South East Pennsylvania Kraft and others manufactured a lot of cheese. Seems Kraft bought most of it out over the last couple years and has moved into Minnesota. The president of DFA was quoted in an article to say he's pleased that one dairy farm has expanded to 35,000 cows and wants to expand to 50. And several others have expanded to the 4000 capacity. Then he tells farmers in our area they're in the process of doing a study to see how much Surplus milk will be generated in our area. But the real kicker is I am a member of a cooperative and for years we subsidized by way of reduced payment to the farmer building and maintaining these plants and they close them down and send the production somewhere else.


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## Widairy

Around here the 2000+ cow operations are being bought up by the processors themselves. Grassland being the most aggressive. Dairy has gone the way of the chicken industry.


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## stack em up

endrow said:


> you have to buy them when you see them. They know they would never have the opportunity to buy a farm fully equipped with robots Prime land good resale value if need be, when the milk markets are good.


Endrow is right, it's about positioning yourself and future generations for the future. Every upgrade we make now is built with my son in mind. He's 11 months old. I want him to be setup as best as I can so he has a bright future farming.


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## swmnhay

Once creameries own their own dairies the rest are just fill in when they need milk.If there is a surplus they will steal it and if its short they pay up until someone adds more cows and there is a surplus again and so the cycle continues.Eventually it will squeeze out the smaller producers completly or close to it.

Look at chickens,turkeys,hogs not much is owned by the farmer anymore he is just custom feeding them.

Cattle are similar but different once they have captive supply either by owned cattle in feedlots or contracted supply the price crashes.


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## endrow

@swmnhay I agree the cycle is vicious. Just north of me there were two brothers I have only been in it about 15 years they're young hard-working guys good farmers I would say financially they were at the end guy from the bank ran numbers total to buy 30 more cows see if they can make it go, they're already milking 120 in a tie stall barn built 60......... most of the dairy farms around here in Desperate Measures who still had a little Equity left have added two to three big chicken houses because you can currently get some contracts and I guess it's a paying proposition. We would sell the dairy cows in a minute, and go to chickens, but we can't help but Wonder if that business isn't due for an adjustment because there's so many many many large poultry facilities going up in our area


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## endrow

Widairy said:


> Around here the 2000+ cow operations are being bought up by the processors themselves. Grassland being the most aggressive. Dairy has gone the way of the chicken industry.


 I did not know that that was going on in a big-time way, but it would kind of explain why things are going the way they are.0


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## r82230

Like Endrow, got a couple of brothers (the last one's in the township) milking cows, pushing a lot of cows through an old double 3 parlor (three to a side, 6 cow total). Ten years ago, there was four dairies in my township, just a matter of time (these brothers are in their 50s now).

The bigger operations operate to right of the decimal point, which is pretty hard for the smaller operations. When you have $10 million of revenues at a 5 basis point (0.5%) profit, it is still a $50,000 profit, whereas a small guy milking 85 cows might see $400,000 revenue, at 5 basis points equals $2,000.

Back to my two neighborhood brothers, one of their son's is working with them, but to look to the future and put in robots? They would need at least two (60 cows each I have been told), at $250K each, plus expand their land base. (The local city a few years ago annexed 800+ acres of farm land from the township and is now putting in the largest solar panel farm east of the Mississippi supposedly) How much debt makes sense a few years before retiring??

I am just glad I quit the milking business a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnng time ago, so I will be able to retire sooner verses later (or never).

Larry


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## endrow

http://www.agweb.com/mobile/article/nebraska-dairies-experience-decreased-demand-naa-associated-press/


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## mlappin

We used to do the dairy thing, was milking over 200 when we got out in a double 4 with automatic takeoffs. Can remember when we had at least a dozen people in the immediate area that milked, now I can think of two. A farm I'm renting now the owner paid for it milking 20 cows&#8230;.


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## Grateful11

Late FIL made a good living off milking 30-40 cows. He once told me he made more money in the 1960's than any other time. I think milk prices were about the same then as they are now but everything else has gone through the roof. When he got out in 2003 he was basically using the milk check to pay bills and there was usually little to nothing left when he got done.


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## Teslan

Here is an article about the smaller dairies in my area and what they are dealing with these days. The guy featured is a long time friend of mine. He has worked extremely hard for a long long time on his dairy. http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/24215770-113/low-prices-increased-competition-create-difficult-situations-for


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## Uphayman

We milked 150 up until 12/1/08. To small to be big....to big to be small. Got out right before the crash of 09'. Have total respect for the dairy folks.....was one for 52 years. The highs are short, the lows are long. Hoping you have enough equity to keep farming till the milk price rises, isn't my idea of enjoyment. Getting up at 4:00 a.m. knowing your going to loose $300, $400, hell maybe if you really bust it.....$500 that day, well you start to ask what the hell am I doing this. 
While we still depend on the industry, at least I feel a little more in control of my future. I have options. My grandkids might some day thank me for exiting the dairy industry. The rosy picture of new calves, beautiful sunrises, and tranquil pasture scenes doesn't cut it when your broke.


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## deadmoose

Hat's off to America's dairy producers. I can't think of a harder job.


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## mlappin

Teslan said:


> Here is an article about the smaller dairies in my area and what they are dealing with these days. The guy featured is a long time friend of mine. He has worked extremely hard for a long long time on his dairy. http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/24215770-113/low-prices-increased-competition-create-difficult-situations-for


I remember those days quite well, last to show up and the first to leave any family function. Think by time we got rid of the cows in the buyout I'd already had frostbite on several fingers at least three times, fixing something in a blizzard so the cows can be fed/watered/milked is the pits.


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## stack em up

My dad is a dairy farmer who hasn't milked cows in 30 years. He lived and breathed dairy. I know it pains him to no end that I am the first generation of my family to not dairy in 170 some years. He reads Milkers Message, Dairy Star, and just recently gave up the subscription to Hoards Dairyman. There are no more dedicated people in the world than dairy farmers.


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## aawhite

Dad and uncle sold the last of the dairy in 2008, cows went about a year earlier, milking 350 in SE Iowa I looked real hard at borrowing the money and going back to buy the place. The auction brought families from all over: PA, OH, IL, WA. Lot of Mennonite farmers with big families and lots of labor. Farm sold to a guy and his investor partner from Chicago area. In the long run, was a blessing I didn't buy the farm, would have went broke in 2009 when prices crashed. Dad said the guy who bought it is folding this year, place is about to go to auction. He will take a bath. The buyer told us he got an offer for $100,000 over purchase price the day after the auction, kicking himself for not taking it, now.


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