Local Farmers Face a Hard Year

[Clipper]

Chatting with Country Gal by email today about imported beef, and she was telling me it looked like a hard year ahead for local farmers, and then I open the OD page and see the article I am posting below.


Area’s agriculture picture: Fewer, smaller farms
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Observer-Dispatch
Posted Feb 04, 2009 @ 10:48 PM

The number of farms in the Mohawk Valley dropped by 5.2 percent between 2002 and 2007, according to the nation’s latest Agriculture Census.

Oneida and Herkimer counties lost a total of 92 farms, 18 in Herkimer County and 74 in Oneida County, U.S. Department of Agriculture data released Wednesday show. In all, there were 1,685 farms operating in the two counties in 2007.

The size of farms and the total amount of land being farmed also declined in the two counties:

2002: The median farm size was 192 acres in Herkimer County and 160 acres in Oneida County. Combined between the two counties, nearly 380,000 acres of land were used for farming.

2007: The median farm size was 150 acres in Herkimer County (down 21.9 percent) and 110 acres in Oneida County (down 31.2 percent). Combined between the two counties, about 332,000 acres were used for farming (down about 13 percent).

Still, the market value of agricultural products locally increased, the data show. In all, between the two counties, the market value rose from about $128 million in 2002 to about $152 million in 2007.

The results of the 2007 Census of Agriculture are available online at www.agcensus.usda.gov.


Dairy farmers are facing a rough year ahead, and beef is being imported from countries without the stringent laws about mad cow disease prevention, for use by McDonalds. Agriculture is in big trouble in this country, and I guess we won't pay attention or do anything about it until we are drinking imported, tainted milk, and can't buy good fresh locally grown produce or beef. Even farms as big as CG and her husband's family run, struggle to survive in an economy that is as depressed as ours is now.

I would urge everyone to insure that our local politicians and representatives on all levels support farm related legislation that brings economic relief to our farmers and supports the "family farm" as opposed to foreign owned "company farms" and imported farm goods. We need to preserve our agricultural heritage and the safety of our locally produced agricultural products. If we don't we will soon be looking at bare farms with abandoned and empty barns. We will be looking at pasture land and hay fields that have grown up into weeds and brush.

I don't know about you, but to me, upstate NY is Holstein cows grazing by the roadsides and corn standing tall in the fields. Say a prayer for the American farmer, and support AMERICAN agriculture. Don't eat imported hamburgers from McDonalds, when you can get US grown and slaughtered beef elsewhere.

[rrogers40]

When are they not facing rough years and when hasn't it been in big trouble- I give so much credit to Farmers and there Families. There is always trouble and issues but they keep going.

[countrygal]

This year is gonna be tougher than most. The economy is so bad that the milk price is gonna dip very low. You won't see a huge change at the grocery store, but our price will be horrible. Most farms have gotten by because they can get loans to help cover until the price goes back up. Well, the banks aren't in great shape either so for some farms, that won't be an option. McDonalds deciding to import beef (with questionable feeding practices I might add) will not help. There is also talk of importing cheese and butter. That will be a big blow also.

I think farmers are taken for granted that we're always gonna be here. That is getting to be less true. Agriculture is Oneida County's #1 industry. I don't know how much longer that will be said. But it's almost like the politicians are ashamed of that (sorry Larry). A good sign of that is that the Ag committee is also the Youth and Education committee. Huh?

We have Farm Fest every year that is put on by Cornell Cooperative Extension and local farmers to showcase Oneida Co. agriculture. We can't seem to get a lot of help from our Oneida Co. politicians. If we can't get support from local politicians than bigger government isn't going to help either!

What most people don't realize is the money that gets pumped back into the local economy by agriculture. I've said it before and I'll point it out again, working lands generate more public revenues than they receive back in public services. On average, residential land uses do not cover their costs. One land use is not better than the other, but there should be a good balance.

[lucy]

Countrygal I don't know how you do it. I don't know you but I do know a few farmers around where I live and that is one of the hardest jobs to have. You just don't get to get up and leave for vacation when you feel like it. Your up at the crack of dawn and then go to bed late. Now my question is this is there anything that us the regular people can do to help you? Write letters anything? I for one believe that keeping the farms in NY is very important and I'm willing to do anything to help.

[countrygal]

Well Lucy, sometimes I don't know how we do it either....lol. We're lucky (and cursed sometimes) to have other family and employees to help with the farm. But it is a 24/7/365 job that's for sure!

You can help by supporting your local farmers markets, and letters are always good. I believe if people put pressure on the politicians, maybe they would wake up a bit and see that losing local farms is not in the community's best interest or the country's for that matter!

Thanks for your support!

[countrygal]

If anyone would like to write to McDonalds to complain about imported beef the address is

McDonalds Corp
2111 McDonalds Dr.
Oak Brook, IL. 60523

Or you can go to McDonalds.com to e-mail them.

I wrote a letter and they said currently they are importing beef from New Zealand and Australia because they can't find beef in the US. Funny......I didn't think we were in a beef shortage!

[Clipper]

Thanks for the address Country Gal. I will drop them a letter also. I oppose their purchasing imported beef and will address that fact. I won't tell them that I ALREADY don't eat their food, because their food causes me extreme digestive problems almost immediately after eating. Their burgers are the only ones that bring about that problem, although I normally avoid fast food anyhow, and am not fond of ANY of that fatty crap.

My advice is for anyone desiring to eat a hamburger to go to a reputable sit-down restaurant that serves a handmade real beef patty instead of the machine made, frozen hockey puck burgers. Nothing pisses me off more than lifting the top off the bun and finding that the pickles are thicker than the beef patty.

Has anyone ever wondered why they advertise the Quarter Pounder with the disclaimer that it weighs 1/4 pound BEFORE cooking. Yep, that way they call it a quarter pounder, and
AFTER cooking out all the water, and grease, it weighs about 2 ounces, LOL.

Bottom line, if you want a good SAFE hamburger, eat where the beef is locally purchased, fresh, not frozen. Hell, that place might even have a MILKshake on their menu, rather than those shakes from which the word "milk" is mysteriously missing.

[Clipper]

I just now heard on our local news that dairy farmers here in NE Tennessee, and SW Virginia are getting only $16 per 100# for their milk. They are paying over half of their milk check just to pay the feed bill, and have to buy fuel and pay their other bills on the other half. The price is actually forecast to drop into the $14 per 100# this summer.

Uhhh, I pay $2.99 for a gallon. That is only approximately 7 or 8 pounds. That is less than half the price going to the producer, and the rest going to the processor and retailer. Something wrong with that picture. I would pay more for my gallon, if I knew that the difference was going to the hard working farmer that struggled to produce the product, while feeding a family on the slim profits.

I would love to see the figures as to how much it costs the farmer to produce the $2.99 gallon of milk. (incidentally, the average price here is more like $3.49 and up.)

[countrygal]

What I read today is that it's forcast to drop to $9. Which I can't even wrap my mind around.

[countrygal]

Ok.....after thinking about some numbers this is what we came up with. It costs us about $17 per hundred weight (that's how we sell our milk, in pounds)to make milk. Which makes that about $1.35 a gallon it costs us to produce. We are getting paid a little less than $1 for that gallon. The March price forecast is $9. So they want to give us $8 less than it costs us TO BREAK EVEN!!!

With a show of hands......how many people out there think that's a good deal!!!!

[dgriffin]

MacDonald's hamburgers are made from beef?? Whoda thought!
Seriously, I remember when it came from Argentina.
And weren't the Japanese at one time farming beef here in the US because prices were so good? I read some time ago they were buying up cattle farms here, but that was quite a while back.

CG, have you ever considered selling your farm's milk at retail? You'd have to buy a dairy, I suppose, to pasteurize and homogenize the milk, make cheese and ice cream, too, I suppose.
Lot of work. Lot of risk and startup costs. But if you're only realizing a third of retail, that's a big chunk of change to leave on the table for someone else.

Maybe your own dairy league with a few other dairy farmers.

[dgriffin]

There was a farmer down this way who for the last 20 years before his death, switched his farm over to an "organic" operation, selling milk and vegetables to Woodstock restaurants and to markets in New York City some 100 miles to the south. The story went that he farmed half as much and made twice as much in profits as he had while running a normal small dairy operation.
He had only about 40 head, and sometimes you had to wait for them to pass by your windshield when he blocked off state route 212 when he used the pasture across the road from his barn. The place was quite run-down, but classically picturesque with an old stone house and a barn not unlike the one in the movie version of "Fiddler On The Rough," more air than boards.

Twenty or so years ago, when I was subscribing to the American Agriculturist and wondering if an AI tech 's duties would be preferable to my desk job, I remember reading of farmers going retail. I wonder how they made out.

[countrygal]

If it was easy and/or profitable to start our own bottling facility I think everybody would jump to do it. It's just very expensive and a huge headache with the health department. In the end the small profit you make is not worth the effort.

There will be someone pretty interesting on WKTV tonight and tomorrow morning and I think on WKTV.com. Keep your eyes opened!

[gearofzanzibar]

Feb 9, 2009 22:25:30 GMT -5 countrygal said:

If it was easy and/or profitable to start our own bottling facility I think everybody would jump to do it. It's just very expensive and a huge headache with the health department. In the end the small profit you make is not worth the effort.

Isn't that something that a co-op could do productively? If the middlemen are slurping up the profits it would seem that removing them from the equation would be better for everyone.

[countrygal]

Technically, yes. We belong to a co-op. Dairylea. They are a co-op. Most farms belong to a co-op. Probably 99%. But the co-op has to make a profit also. Basically the bottler takes our milk, figures out what their profit needs to be and gives the farmer whats left. Which isn't much. Most businesses withhold their goods until they get the price they want for them. We can't do that. Our product is perishable and that is against us.