# Status of the dairy industry



## Bgriffin856

DFA and other cooperatives and milk buyers are posting record profits. Meanwhile some producers have had suicide and mental health hotline numbers included with thier milk checkes....

We haven't got with ours


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## hillside hay

Yeah I haven't seen the price any lower at the store than when milk was 22 and change a hundred. You would think they'd try to find a home for all this milk out there


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## endrow

They are the problem when the milk truck driver loads are milking jumps in the cab in 10 minutes time he can be at Hershey chocolate or Hershey ice cream or swiss one of the largest bottling plants on the East Coast. Or in less than 45 minutes he could be a dozens of plants that process milk. When we go to a meeting they say we have they have no place to go with our milk so they have to send it to a balancing plan and there they turn it into powder and the farmers receive much less for that milk.. are our founding Dairy Farmers had the foresight to put ample processing in place in this area and the big milk Co-op see fit to ruin it. They say they need less milk but they are constantly driving Farmers to get bigger. They now control all aspects of the business and it said if a processor does not cooperate with them they won't exist


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## swmnhay

I'd be willing to bet the large producers that are still expanding have some sort of contracts that gaurentee they will take all the milk they produce with a minimum price.

Plus quality premiums.Less cost per 100 for hauling,etc


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## hillside hay

Yeah it stinks to high heaven. There are a lot less farms in our county but more cows.


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## endrow

swmnhay said:


> I'd be willing to bet the large producers that are still expanding have some sort of contracts that gaurentee they will take all the milk they produce with a minimum price.
> Plus quality premiums.Less cost per 100 for hauling,etc


 yes it is a well-known fact that that does happen


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## endrow

My thought is if the Amish get run out of the dairy business and no longer farm those small farms with horses and buy dairy hay ,It will change the hay business as well


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## swmnhay

Just caught the sale barn report for dairy auction tommorow.400 cow dairy bringing in all the cows and replacements for tommorow.Pretty unheard of for a herd of that size to bring them all to the auction.

The dairy auction is typically open heifers and springing heifers.300-400 each usually.Once a month.They used to run about 1500 each monthly,20 yrs ago.


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## hillside hay

endrow said:


> My thought is if the Amish get run out of the dairy business and no longer farm those small farms with horses and buy dairy hay ,It will change the hay business as well


That is a concern. A lot of hay from my area heads down to Lancaster and North Va.. should that market dry up it'll push out into Mass and OH where a lot of mine goes lately. I'm sure if they successfully run the Amish dairy farms out of PA the OH community is t far behind. Many small dairies that sold out here now are cow calf operations. 5 years down the road what is the beef market going to look like. Cascading effect.


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## bbos2

endrow said:


> My thought is if the Amish get run out of the dairy business and no longer farm those small farms with horses and buy dairy hay ,It will change the hay business as well


My same thoughts and concerns


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## endrow

Word on the street this morning , two milk processors/ milk buyers, Have sent letters out to terminate the contracts in 90 days with its smallest producers.


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## PaMike

endrow said:


> Word on the street this morning , two milk processors/ milk buyers, Have sent letters out to terminate the contracts in 90 days with its smallest producers.


Yup, down right next to me Swiss Premium cancelled herds under 100 cows. One person said they cancelled 10 farms another person said 30 farms. One of the farms is our neighbor who milks on my great grand fathers farm. They did a modernization/expansion project about 3 years ago when the son (early 30s) took over. I dont know what they will do if they have no milk market and a building to pay for...


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## swmnhay

Just read a couple days ago that a creamery was expanding on SD/MN border and it will take about 100,000 more cows

There was a hug expansion there when the plant was built,a lot of foreign dairies moved in.

Now I see the plant was sold to a Canadian Co.


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## ozarkian

State of the dairy Industry




__
ozarkian


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Mar 4, 2018


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## hillside hay

About the size of it


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## endrow

PaMike said:


> Yup, down right next to me Swiss Premium cancelled herds under 100 cows. One person said they cancelled 10 farms another person said 30 farms. One of the farms is our neighbor who milks on my great grand fathers farm. They did a modernization/expansion project about 3 years ago when the son (early 30s) took over. I dont know what they will do if they have no milk market and a building to pay for...


There is talk Swiss wants to no longer wants have producer farms they want to buy all the milk from DFA for the bottling plant .


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## endrow

swmnhay said:


> Just read a couple days ago that a creamery was expanding on SD/MN border and it will take about 100,000 more cows
> 
> There was a hug expansion there when the plant was built,a lot of foreign dairies moved in.
> 
> Now I see the plant was sold to a Canadian Co.


Is this plant affiliated with the AMPI Cooperative


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## PaMike

endrow said:


> There is talk Swiss wants to no longer wants have producer farms they want to buy all the milk from DFA for the bottling plant .


 Nothing would surprise me anymore considering Swiss is owned now by Dean foods which we all know settled for $140 million when accused of Milk price fixing up in the New England area...

This is just another example of what happens when businesses are no longer locally owned and operated. A locally owned company would do everything in their power to keep their suppliers in business, not kick them to the curb with a 90 day notice..

Talked to a couple of people at church today and this is really hitting home for a lot of people. It seams everyone I talk to knows someone that just got cancelled. It doesn't appear that anyone has heard of a solution for the farmers that got cancelled. No co ops are taking on new customers is what I hear from everyone...


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## swmnhay

endrow said:


> Is this plant affiliated with the AMPI Cooperative


no
http://www.startribune.com/cheese-firm-davisco-sold-to-canadian-dairy-co-op/268206602/

Davisco owned 2-3500? HD dairies.3 creameries.hfr growing facility that they worked with U of M teaching students at.

Before they built the hfr facility I supplied hay to custom hfr raiser that had them from 400# - springer.

Huge co.Also own Cambria counter tops.


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## Bgriffin856

The co-op we joined that was basically the only one that would take on producers, after DFA shut off it's independent producers, has mostly small herds with only a handful if that many over 100 head.

Big talk around here is the wal-mart plant that is opening up in Indiana. Word is it's going to really affect Deans producers as that's where wal-mart sourced a good chunk of its dairy products


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## PaMike

Fine by me. I don't have any time for Dean Foods...

Maybe that's why Dean kicked a bunch of our producers to the curb. They know they need to reduce production...


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## endrow

https://www.agweb.com/article/dozens-more-farmers-lose-milk-contracts/


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## swmnhay

So where is Walmart going to get the milk from that they got from Dean Foods?


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## Vol

Canada?

Regards, Mike


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## endrow

I would think DFA would supply the milk . all these herds that got bumped in the east every cow is still being milked and every drop is still being processed once DFA gets there hands on it . Or will Walmart have farmer / producers


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## Bgriffin856

They arent getting it from Deans or DFA. Word is they are going to be buying/contracting thier own and getting alot from Michigan. That will help alot as plants a good part of the milk from this area goes to are flooded with cheap Michigan milk which will help some of the plants to our east where this areas milk gets pushed too. That's the theory


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## swmnhay

> But in the region where these contracts have been lost, Walmart built their own bottling plant. The plant, which is in Ft. Wayne, Ind., is expected to be fully operational and running at capacity by the end of May.


So where is Walmart buying the milk for their bottling plant?

Looks like WM cut out the bottling plant,they still have to get the milk from somewhere.

Looks like Dean Foods got the shaft from WM.It looks more like WM is to blame for the whole deal ???


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## endrow

Bgriffin856 said:


> They arent getting it from Deans or DFA. Word is they are going to be buying/contracting thier own and getting alot from Michigan. That will help alot as plants a good part of the milk from this area goes to are flooded with cheap Michigan milk which will help some of the plants to our east where this areas milk gets pushed too. That's the theory


Some local people got laid off from the Swiss Deans Food plant . They say this Walmart deal put a hurting on them. I go by that plant whenever i run to town.. FOODLION is hauling out of there pretty heavy yet


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## haysprout

Seriously, are you joking about the help numbers being included with the milk check?

Had an ad pop up the other day for low lignin alfalfa seed. It said a cow would increase milk production by 2.5 pounds. That's what we need....each milk cow in this country to give 2.5 more pounds of milk. Mercy!


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## Farmerbrown2

I figure Walmart will get there milk from China that’s where they get a lot of stuff from. Luckily we still have a local dairy called Guers my wife tries to buy there milk always seems to taste better. There is still one dairy farm we frequent when we get that way still jug there own in glass bottles that is the best.


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## Uphayman

You don't have to drive very far in my county, (Menominee), to see tanker trucks, either returning from or going to Wisconsin. Dumping excess milk that lower Michigan doesn't have the capacity to process. Currently depressing Wisconsin milk markets.......last I heard was 26 + loads a day. Roughly 600 miles one way to dump milk. Fort Wayne would be a hop skip compared to what they're hauling now.

Seems after irritating badgerland, now they've switched it to the folks in Pennsylvania.

What a mess.........thank God I don't juice cows anymore.


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## endrow

Uphayman said:


> You don't have to drive very far in my county, (Menominee), to see tanker trucks, either returning from or going to Wisconsin. Dumping excess milk that lower Michigan doesn't have the capacity to process. Currently depressing Wisconsin milk markets.......last I heard was 26 + loads a day. Roughly 600 miles one way to dump milk. Fort Wayne would be a hop skip compared to what they're hauling now.
> 
> Seems after irritating badgerland, now they've switched it to the folks in Pennsylvania.
> 
> What a mess.........thank God I don't juice cows anymore.


In my DFA Newsletter I hear talk about the ongoing expansion of capacity on a bottling /processing plant DFA owns in Cass City Michigan . Do you know of that plant .


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## endrow

Things are a buzz here neighbors stopped in . They said bank wants cut there credit line . . They milk 200 and are real good farmers . No new paint diseases on there farm . We were dry a couple years back and they had just went from 100 to 200 and feed was high they dug a hole they cant get out of . Banks are saying sell now when the cows still have some value . Many worry cows will lose all there value


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## Bgriffin856

haysprout said:


> Seriously, are you joking about the help numbers being included with the milk check?
> 
> Had an ad pop up the other day for low lignin alfalfa seed. It said a cow would increase milk production by 2.5 pounds. That's what we need....each milk cow in this country to give 2.5 more pounds of milk. Mercy!


From multiple reliable sources

Im glad they are showing they care......


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## endrow

https://www.milkbusiness.com/article/dfa-unable-to-pick-up-dropped-dean-foods-contracts


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## endrow

http://s.pennlive.com/EsnLZ6S


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## Uphayman

endrow said:


> In my DFA Newsletter I hear talk about the ongoing expansion of capacity on a bottling /processing plant DFA owns in Cass City Michigan . Do you know of that plant .


Having been "out" almost 10 years now...... My news is what is comes from press releases. This new expansion should put them (Michigan milk producers) in a strong position. DHM magazine has a sanitized word for what's happening ..........a "contraction " is happening in the industry. Sounds a lot nicer than " getting the rug pulled out , and losing your family's livelihood.


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## paoutdoorsman

Was this Richmond VA plant a recent shutdown as a result of the new plant? http://www.newmillcapital.com/dairy-equipment-auction-dean-foods-richmond


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## endrow

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/dean-foods-shuts-down-plant/ some seem to know why the plant was closed down


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## swmnhay

And the big dairies keep expanding.
http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/m-dairy-farm-underway-in-wilkin/article_908c2e22-8dd5-11e7-8d0d-2fcc3f53b8e2.html


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## Farmerbrown2

I liked the that the County going to make lots of money in taxes off of the dairy then in 10 years when they leave and everyone within 5 miles well is contaminated then what. Just think of the amount of medication that will be used per day at that dairy looks like a disastor waiting to happen.


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## endrow

swmnhay said:


> And the big dairies keep expanding.
> http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/m-dairy-farm-underway-in-wilkin/article_908c2e22-8dd5-11e7-8d0d-2fcc3f53b8e2.html


I wonder if these dairies own the supporting land or the contact feed and manure


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## swmnhay

endrow said:


> I wonder if these dairies own the supporting land or the contact feed and manure


IDK about this one but some others start out buying most of the feed as silage and haylage from local farmers and get manure back in some sort of agreement.

And then a few yrs later they tend to start buying land or renting it for more then anyone else can justify.

It doesn't seem to matter if its Dairy,Hogs,Chickens,cattle quite a few go this route


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## swmnhay

farmerbrown said:


> I liked the that the County going to make lots of money in taxes off of the dairy then in 10 years when they leave and everyone within 5 miles well is contaminated then what. Just think of the amount of medication that will be used per day at that dairy looks like a disastor waiting to happen.


A lot of times theses mega operations want tax breaks.I was just reading the paper and a mega hog co wants to build a new feed plant.They have picked two different sites in two different counties and working on them both for the best tax break on property taxes.The site in my county they are talking 10,000 per yr for 15 yrs tax abatement.So they get a $150,000 tax break where as everyone else gets to pay full rate.


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## Bgriffin856

I've read something somewhere recently that said there are new plants being built in the Midwest and upper midwest. But here in the east milk is being dumped because there is a shortage of plant capacity


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## Bgriffin856

The big thing about these larger dairy farms is the processors like the consistency of milk quality


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## PaMike

I just heard today that Maryland and Virginia milk Coop just dropped some guys in my area...its going from bad to worse...


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## endrow

PaMike said:


> I just heard today that Maryland and Virginia milk Coop just dropped some guys in my area...its going from bad to worse...


 we heard that they are going to declare bankruptcy. I would not call That official that is just what I heard from several farmers


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## PaMike

endrow said:


> we heard that they are going to declare bankruptcy. I would not call That official that is just what I heard from several farmers


That co-op is in that bad of shape? That surprises me. I thought the middle man always made money...


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## Farmerbrown2

The middle man does make the money he just walks away and lets everyone else hold the empty bag. Seen that with Agway they hired a CEO that sold everything off made it look good for a while till there was nothing left but he got his high salary plus bonus. Same old story in the USA rich get richer poor ain’t got nothing so guy in middle gets screwed.


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## endrow

PaMike said:


> That co-op is in that bad of shape? That surprises me. I thought the middle man always made money...


 in January of 2018 all you heard was complaints about $15 milk that was soon to be $14 and farmers were screaming they wanted an investigation is someone tampering with pride pricing again. After all DFA and Dean's both had lawsuits in the past.... milk is set to go to $14 per hundred next month but no one's even complaining about it after the announcement that all these Farms contracts would be canceled. No one seems to care what the price is now they're just glad for a milk Market. Is this all part of a plan?


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## Vol

I read an article this morning about 11 dairies in East Tennessee that received the Dean Foods Dear John Letter.

The article said that there are 140 dairies in IN, KY, TN, NC, SC, OH, PA, and NY that are being phased out. The article went on to say that Dean still buys milk from over 12,000 dairies including dairies in TN.

Significant changes in demand since 2010 was the major factor in closing these dairies with bulk milk economies of scale by larger dairies affecting the smaller dairies(50-300 cows).

Lots and lots of millennials are not consuming cow milk and have switched to alternatives like Almond milk etc.

Times, they are a changing.

Regards, MIke


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## hillside hay

Read an article last night in the Lancaster Farming. Seems the processors need components and less volume. They had components before they kicked out all the little guys. Locally Byrne dairy is gaining local market share because the milk flat out tastes better. Most of their producers are smaller forage based dairies.


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## endrow

Vol said:


> I read an article this morning about 11 dairies in East Tennessee that received the Dean Foods Dear John Letter.
> 
> The article said that there are 140 dairies in IN, KY, TN, NC, SC, OH, PA, and NY that are being phased out. The article went on to say that Dean still buys milk from over 12,000 dairies including dairies in TN.
> 
> Significant changes in demand since 2010 was the major factor in closing these dairies with bulk milk economies of scale by larger dairies affecting the smaller dairies(50-300 cows).
> 
> Lots and lots of millennials are not consuming cow milk and have switched to alternatives like Almond milk etc.
> 
> Times, they are a changing.
> 
> Regards, MIke


 I know times are changing I guess they are but when I go into Walmart I see a whole Dairy Corner there stop from the from floor to ceiling many different kinds of milk ice cream tons of cheese and yogurt all perishable they don't put it there for a display because if it doesn't sell they soon have to take it and throw it away and I know that's something Walmart doesn't like to do. And then when you go down to the area where these alternatives to dairy products are you might find about 2 gallons of each.. some of this news we recently gained I don't believe.. no one can tell me Walmart is obtaining a source of raw milk building processing plants adding a an entirely new distribution system for the product they're doing all that because people aren't going to drink milk anymore gimme a Break. Maybe somebody like me would be stupid enough to do something like that but I can tell you one thing Walmart is not if they're jumping on the bus there's gas in the tank


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## Bgriffin856

Milk and dairy products are in so many other foods as a ingredient maybe not in large amounts but its still used. Like last week I was having some salt n vinegar potato chips and noticed under the allergy info milk was listed. Out of all things I would've never guessed...

Call me crazy or what have you but I honestly don't believe there is as much milk out there as what is said to be


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## Vol

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/06/20/the-mysterious-case-of-americas-plummeting-milk-consumption/?utm_term=.6eb82949b8f4

The above article was written over 3 years ago.

Regards, Mike


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## PaMike

There is going to be better margins for the coop/middle man with the large dairies. Instead of spending all day sending a tanker to a handful of small dairies in an area they can roll into one 2k head farm, fill their tanker and roll out. I suspect they are phasing out the small guys that lower their margins...

Makes you wonder if when there are only big guys left will they be able to push back since they have more pull in the market place....??


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## luke strawwalker

swmnhay said:


> A lot of times theses mega operations want tax breaks.I was just reading the paper and a mega hog co wants to build a new feed plant.They have picked two different sites in two different counties and working on them both for the best tax break on property taxes.The site in my county they are talking 10,000 per yr for 15 yrs tax abatement.So they get a $150,000 tax break where as everyone else gets to pay full rate.


Yes which should be 100% ILLEGAL. Taxes are getting out of hand because gubmint can't do ANYTHING reasonable anymore... they blew $25 million dollars building some big fugly new high school up here-- stupid architects are building these glass-n-stonework "monuments" to themselves when kids could be educated just as well in a steel building with good air conditioning and electric service, no glass and artsy-fartsy stonework multi-million dollar monuments required...

These companies have started playing that tax abatement game like a $2 violin... I know here a few years ago Tyson wanted to build a big chicken processing plant between Shiner and Gonzales... they picked out the site (a farm a ways off the highway about halfway between Shiner and Gonzales) and then gave the county officials their "list of demands". They wanted the GUBMINT (read TAXPAYERS) to not only buy the farm for them for the site (to the tune of about a half-million dollars or so) but ALSO they would need water service run out there and city utilities (sewer) AND since the remote two-land rural road was insufficient for the fleets of semis they anticipated running in and out of there every day, they also *required* that the county pay to widen and repave the road from "lane-n-a-half county rural road" to a full two-lane plus shoulder highway to the tune of about $2 million dollars... then they wanted a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT tax abatement for 10 years MINIMUM, and a half-rate after that for another 5 years... then they sang a swan-song about how they'd be providing 135 "high paying" jobs (to chicken pluckers and gutters getting minimum wage?, well, and maybe a couple honchos and some clerical jobs maybe a couple warehouse guys or something) and all this load of CRAP... It probably works wonders in a lot of places but most of the older generation Germans up around Shiner are so tight the squeak when they walk and they made it known in no uncertain terms the answer was NO! and basically they told Tyson to shove off and keep walking til their hat floats... and RIGHTLY SO!

I used to have a pen-pal just out of high school up in Iowa-- her family farmed in a little town just south of Dyersville... she told me all about how that worked out for their town. She had gone to college and became a school teacher and was teaching at the local school when some big pork company came into town with the same sort of song-n-dance routine and waving around promises of a bunch of well-paying jobs and big bucks coming into the community and stimulating business and all this crap, and the local gubmint idgits fell for it... SO, they got their huge hog slaughter plant and their 10 years tax free abatement and built their plant... then of course the semis coming and going through town all day and night round the clock tear up all the roads, so suddenly the county is saddled with huge infrastructure improvement costs. The company hired immigrants 'fresh of the boat' from these other countries, getting them their green cards and providing them a job UNDER CONTRACT for the next year to work in their slaughter plant... then trucked them in from New York and wherever they were coming in from, so none of the "high paying jobs" materialized-- instead they got a huge influx of third-world immigrants with 15 kids in each family, which of course most don't speak any English or have such poor English or education that they're years behind, and suddenly the school is just SWAMPED with all these kids and don't have the resources or multi-lingual teachers to teach, and of course given state and federal standards, the school is then REQUIRED to hire sufficient well-trained teachers and expand or institute programs to educate all these immigrant kids and "serve their needs", which they don't have money to do, so the school taxes go through the roof on everybody else (including the farmers) stuck owning anything in the community. The company threw up some cheap "section 8" style tenement type-apartment complexes to house the workers, so the workers aren't really paying any property taxes and the company doing the apartments isn't paying much... Then, of course, the workers slaughtering hogs are exposed to all these bacteria and diseases and stuff and they're bringing it home to their families due to poor hygiene and practices, so then their kids and wives are getting sick and of course they have no money so they end up swamping the public clinic and hospital with a bunch of charity cases and bills they can't pay, which of course causes the health costs to skyrocket and creates a "crisis" in the local healthcare capabilities, which are overwhelmed and need more state and federal funding to stay in business, let alone expand... IOW it worked out to be a HUGE SCREW for the locals and just a complete windfall for the company(s) involved...

Had a friend in Dixon, TN that I visited when we lived in Nashville... he was telling me about this company that got the same "sweetheart deal" to locate there, and again, while all these promises of "lots of high paying jobs" never materialized, as they brought in workers forced to relocate or hired from elsewhere if they refused to relocate. They had gotten about 15 years tax free and the company had basically leveled the site and built a huge steel building to hold their manufacturing equipment, and then when the tax abatement was coming due and they were gonna have to start paying taxes on all of it, the went to the taxing authorities demanding another 10-15 year abatement, which was refused, so within the month they announced their plans to relocate the factory and close the facility. In the meantime, they had stored YEARS of chemical sludge in 55 gallon drums in a "holding facility" behind the factory, and those drums were leaking and had contaminated the well water and were causing all sorts of issues for surrounding landowners, of which NOTHING was being done to help, let alone hold them accountable. He told me basically when they were gone the whole thing would end up being a "superfund site" and the gubmint would have to foot the bill to clean it all up, and the locals would be dealing with the side-effects of the contamination basically forever...

Nope-- those tax abatements to "encourage" businesses to locate to a specific area should be STRICTLY FORBIDDEN... the same tax rates should apply to ALL based on the value of their property and intended use, EQUALLY... It's just like those [email protected] "bulk mail" contracts-- that should be ANOTHER THING that should be 100% OUTLAWED... You want to mail something, you have to pay for the friggin' stamp, and it should cost the SAME whether you want to mail one postcard or 100,000, or mail one letter or a million... All those [email protected] bulk mail contracts do is create huge quantities of JUNK MAIL that the postal service has to haul, sort, handle, and deliver that NOBODY WANTS, and which drives up costs to deliver the much smaller number of LEGITIMATE mail between people and businesses that IS DESIRED OR NECESSARY, and FORCING the legitimate mail users to PAY MORE for handling all the excess trash mail (Junk Mail), essentially forcing *ALL* users of the postal service to subsidize the advertisers BOMBARDING them with tons of junk mail they have to dispose of that they wouldn't be sending nearly so much of **IF** they had to pay FULL RATES on the mail, instead of getting those cheap "bulk-rate" mail contracts... It's not right that some company can pay 3 cents or a nickel or dime or whatever to mail a million pieces of stupid junk mail to everybody in the friggin' county or area while if you have to send a letter to your banker or lawyer or Aunt Millie you have to pay 52 cents or whatever the hell it is for stamp anymore... it should be the SAME FOR EVERYBODY...

Later! OL J R


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## endrow

Bgriffin856 said:


> Milk and dairy products are in so many other foods as a ingredient maybe not in large amounts but its still used. Like last week I was having some salt n vinegar potato chips and noticed under the allergy info milk was listed. Out of all things I would've never guessed...
> 
> Call me crazy or what have you but I honestly don't believe there is as much milk out there as what is said to be





Bgriffin856 said:


> Milk and dairy products are in so many other foods as a ingredient maybe not in large amounts but its still used. Like last week I was having some salt n vinegar potato chips and noticed under the allergy info milk was listed. Out of all things I would've never guessed...
> 
> Call me crazy or what have you but I honestly don't believe there is as much milk out there as what is said to be


That is my line of thinking . I know fluid milk consumption decreases but i just cant believe it is as drastic as they say . THE Rep from our coop says the glut of milk is worse in Europe than here. .He said trade is important and anyone involved with trade is uneasy right now .

I do think for sure they want to get rid of the smaller producers and now producers under 300 head is the talk . I am sure the 2k head dairys of the future will only contract hay with farmers who grow 2k acres of hay .

Having a dairy is not like having a mow of hay . You can wait ti;ll; next week ,month or year if the hay prices are poor . If someone says this dairy farm has to stop and cannot milk its cows in 12 hours time those cows must be in a new owners barn or in a butcher shop .


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## Bgriffin856

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/nyregion/farmer-suicides-mark-tough-times-for-new-york-dairy-industry.html?referer=https://t.co/OGYtmh3Nrh


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## Vol

Bgriffin856 said:


> https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/nyregion/farmer-suicides-mark-tough-times-for-new-york-dairy-industry.html?referer=https://t.co/OGYtmh3Nrh


Very sad and disheartening. It is very tough on folks that dairy now....the solitude and the dark loneliness of very early cold winter mornings complicates dealing with a stressful situation.

I cannot help but think of the Michigan automobile industry collapse in the seventies. How folks in the towns of Flint, Buick etc. kept hanging on...hoping that there would be relief in the drastically changing auto industry. No relief ever came.

The dairy industry is at a crossroads of change and too many folks will try to hang on and dig deeper and deeper. I wish I could do something to change the course of direction....but I am afraid we are at a place in time where there is no way to make a change that would help or give hope to the dairy farmer.

Regards, Mike


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## endrow

Local groups starting up to try and SAVE OUR DAIRY FARMS. Deans Foods reply to the Swiss Premium Farms they own in this aREA . Each dairy farms has a Swiss premium milk sign along road with producers name on it and they are removing the signs . A new era is here


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## PaMike

endrow said:


> Local groups starting up to try and SAVE OUR DAIRY FARMS. Deans Foods reply to the Swiss Premium Farms they own in this aREA . Each dairy farms has a Swiss premium milk sign along road with producers name on it and they are removing the signs . A new era is here


 The irony is Swiss always paid a premium and many farmers wanted to get in with them, and now Swiss is the first to drop farmers.. As long as I can remember those signs have hung at the end of farm lanes. It really showed a sense of pride in what the family/farm did, and who they produced for...

Neighbor still thinks something is going to come through to save him. He is down to about 60 days..I can't imagine the stress of that, while also enduring the financial stress right now of low prices...


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## azmike

To my north by around 50 miles was an older dairy that was bought out by a MN dairy. In just a couple of years they have "absorbed" over 120 full pivots that were all owned by individual operators. Their expansions have been HUGE all mostly without local help or materials. All of their amendments, fertilizers and such are brought in from elsewhere. The wells are deepend as the water table is lower causing farmers to sell on the idea that the expense of water will wipe them out.


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## swmnhay

azmike said:


> To my north by around 50 miles was an older dairy that was bought out by a MN dairy. In just a couple of years they have "absorbed" over 120 full pivots that were all owned by individual operators. Their expansions have been HUGE all mostly without local help or materials. All of their amendments, fertilizers and such are brought in from elsewhere. The wells are deepend as the water table is lower causing farmers to sell on the idea that the expense of water will wipe them out.


i wonder if that's the same dairy I seen being discussed on another forum from central Mn.Major expansion going on there also.They own their own construction company to build the dairy.

Mega hog producer here bought out a construction co that specialized in building hog buildings also.


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## azmike

Riverview LLC see link

http://www.riverviewllp.com/dairy.html


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## swmnhay

azmike said:


> Riverview LLC see link
> 
> http://www.riverviewllp.com/dairy.html


80,000 cows and expanding!


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## IH 1586

Another PA herd lost.

https://meadville.craigslist.org/grd/d/100-head-dairy-cattle-april/6550244077.html


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## PaMike

I just heard that Harrisburg Dairy picked up 7 of that farms dropped by Swiss/Dean Foods...


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## endrow

PaMike said:


> I just heard that Harrisburg Dairy picked up 7 of that farms dropped by Swiss/Dean Foods...





PaMike said:


> I just heard that Harrisburg Dairy picked up 7 of that farms dropped by Swiss/Dean Foods...


 That is a fact they did, I was somewhat surprised because just six months ago Harrisburg Dairies sent letters out to eight of their dairy farms telling them they would drop them in 90 days, and before the 90 days were up they got things resolved and decided they could keep those Farms but those Farms would not be able to increase production. Harrisburg dairies also sent a letter out to all their Farmers recently explaining they would probably take on several of these Farms that Deans terminated contract with. They asked there current farmers if they might consider voluntarily dropping their milk production 10%......... kind of reminds me of our setting less than 1 year ago the milk coop recommended to us we should double our herd size and that would ensure our milk contract would continue with them. 4 months later in a newsletter from the coop they indicated you would need to put more cows in then that to make them happy . Just one month later they said they did not want any expansion currently to hold the level were producing........ now the latest is they will continue to buy our milk but they are going to have a new process whereas they will tell you how to farm. Sounds kind of like chicken ization. A member from the co-op hinted to me that they want to head in that direction just like the chicken people and tell you what to feed how to feed how to raise your animals what equipment is needed in the milking Barn really makes a guy Wonder. I know it isn't anything new for the dairy industry to be directed to upgrade or make changes or anything like that and that's not a big problem but this changing your mind 2 months down the road is crazy. Maybe it would be better if they just be honest and say we don't want your milk


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## IH 1586

I'm glad I did not survive long enough to deal with that. There is enough to worry about with the prices and then to be told you HAVE to expand. Spend your time with trying to figure out funding and adding on if you have to then be told NOT to expand after expending your time. For somebody like me I thought about building a barn just to get the cows out of the tiestalls but could just not bring myself to do it as I did not own the land and the buildings.


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## endrow

https://www.agweb.com/mobile/article/dairy-talk-yes-folks-we-have-a-crisis-naa-jim-dickrell/


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## endrow

https://www.milkbusiness.com/article/export-values-set-new-record


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