Columbia Basin, Ephrata, WA | I'm not a dairyman, but I'm also not negative on the dairy industry. In the last seven years I've kind of positioned our farm to serve some of the feed needs of local dairies.
The dairies we work with are of various sizes from 300 to 3,000 cows. When I started the dairies were from 80 to 1,600 cows, so in seven years they have increased in size by anywhere from 1.5x to 5x. That tells me that the guys around here apparently aren't too negative about the future, though I know they all remember 2009, as do I.
I don't know that there is much of a future in small dairies for most operations. The industry has outgrown 80 cows, everything is just too expensive to be paid for by that little milk. It is true that a great deal of the costs are variable (obviously feed use and labor requirement increase with cow numbers) but I think that everything is just a little more expensive in small quantities. A lot of the stuff like silage chopping that is done cheapest by big equipment can be hired done, but the big accounts usually get the best rates with those guys. That holds true for manure spreading, hay hauling, milk trucking, etc.
My grandfather supported a family and put four kids through college in the '70's with a dairy farm that had less than 40 cows, but he paid for it in hard work and a lifestyle that left none of his kids interested in dairy. My grandpa never liked employees or having to work with other people, but realizes now that one man and his family can't get it all done and that there is very good help available if you get the right people. I think now he would not hesitate to tell you that things can't be done anymore the way he did it. I think maybe they can, but there are better ways.
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Negativity towards dairy farming?
