Mr. Lang,
As a fellow dairy farmer and a member of the Farm Bureau, I was appalled at the testimony you provided to the U.S. House Agricultural Subcommittee. You started out talking like a dairy farmer and then turned into a bureaucrat. You contradicted yourself many times. Your testimony began with your story of being a fifth generation farmer and how your sons could choose other professions, but prefer to dairy farm. You appear sympathetic and empathetic for all dairy farmers when you describe how you, as other dairy farmers, have depleted all cash reserves and are now relying on a bank line of credit.
My husband and I own a small dairy operation in Webster, IA. We have 75 cows and milk 64. We, like other dairy farmers, are struggling to stay afloat. The price of milk has decreased so much that we went from being able to pay all our bills, to losing about $5000.00 each month. We have cashed in our retirements and life insurance policies. We’ve borrowed more money from the bank to continue operating and I was forced to return to work off the farm. This has left my husband to do all the milking by himself and it has taken a toll on us. We are living from day to day, not sure if we will go bankrupt and lose our farm, our home, and Todd’s parents’ house, which is also part of the farm. Our closest dairy friends are barely hanging on and we lean on each other for moral support. Last week, one of our dairy friends filed for bankruptcy and three other local dairy farms have also been lost due to the crisis. We couldn’t sell out even if we wanted as dairy cows are worth practically nothing at the market.
Although the USDA has tried to help by instituting the MILC program, the MILC rate is based on the Boston Milk price. This is simply a joke. The Boston price is the highest in the country and although an adjustment is made for feed costs, it still only adds about 1000.00 to our income. It is simply not enough to ward off bankruptcy. The lack of money is now having a trickling down effect and there is loss of income to local businesses, including hoof trimmers, veterinarians, dairy supply stores, feed mills and milk haulers.
We had a glimmer of hope when the Senate Ag committee began to hold hearings on the dairy crisis. However, the Committee admitted they were confused by the mixed messages they received about the cause of the situation and the solution to the problem.
I was very disappointed and disgusted at your testimony. As President of the Farm Bureau, I expect you to advocate for all dairy farmers and you did not. You were looking out for your own best interest as a large dairy farmer and you hurt the smaller dairy farmers.
Here are the issues I had with your testimony:
“We support and encourage the use of CWT”
The Farm Bureau advocates for the CWT program and yet you admit that this program is not working because hundreds of thousands of more cows need to be removed from the system. I am sick and appalled that dairy cows, including bred heifers, are needlessly being sent to slaughter. You seem to go along with the story that there is an “oversupply” of milk. I believe this is a tale that cooperatives and end processors have invented to justify paying farmers half the price they used to. If there is an oversupply of milk, then why import it? If there is an oversupply, then why isn’t milk dirt cheap in the stores? The law of supply and demand states in a competitive market, price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity. An increase in the quantity produced or supplied will typically result in a reduction in price and vice-versa. Milk is still relatively high priced in the stores. The only person not making the money off the price of milk in the stores is the farmer. It's either the coops or the processors that are making the money and if you look at Dean's Foods profit margin for the last quarter, they're doing pretty well. If you really believe that there are too many cows in the dairy system, then why are you increasing your herd?
Farm Bureau supports the MILC program but “oppose discrimination against large producers in the MILC program”
Is the reason you, as President of the Farm Bureau, oppose this discrimination have to do with the fact that your farm produces 35,000 pounds of milk per day and your “family farm” wants to produce more?
Farm Bureau supports a “continuation of the dairy price support program at the current level” because Farm Bureau believes that if support prices are increased, this has the “strong potential to send the wrong signal to the market to increase or at least maintain, rather than to decrease production.”
Again, this coming from a farmer who proudly ships 35,000 pounds per day and is increasing his herd.
Lastly, you go on to say that Farm Bureau basically doesn’t want the government to step in and help the dairy industry because to help high-cost producers might produce a windfall for the low cost producers.
How can you admit that your farm is losing $3.00 per CWT and at the same time ask the Senate Ag Committee to do nothing? How dare you testify that “producers are facing significant income loss and all of them may not survive financially.” That would benefit your farm, wouldn’t it? If the smaller farms go under, then that fixes the problem of supply and demand. Again, I believe you were looking out for your own best interests and not the interests of ALL dairy farmers.
I have spoken to many dairy farmers that were present during your testimony and you have angered many farmers across the country. I have received multiple emails wanting to know who that “idiot from Iowa” was who testified against us. How am I supposed to respond to that?
You started out your testimony as a dairy farmer; you then proceeded to protect your own dairy operation under the guise as President of the Farm Bureau. I want you to know that you DID NOT represent me as a member of the Farm Bureau and you DID NOT represent me as a fellow dairy farmer
You should be ashamed of yourself for looking out for your own best interests. I have written to EVERY member of the Ag committee, dairy caucus, my state representatives and President Obama and have explained that your testimony did not represent me. I will continue to advocate for the rest of us and it is my intention to find out how the Farm Bureau could allow an atrocity such as this against their own members.
Janice Grimes
CC: President Obama
Tom Harkin
Saxby Chambliss
Patrick J. Leahy
Richard G. Lugar
E. Benjamin Nelson
Charles Grassley
Amy Klobuchar
Michael Bennet
Kirsten Gillibrand
Randy Neugebauer
Bob Goodlatte
Secretary Tom Vilsack
| Rep. Peter Welch
Rep. Maurice Hinchey
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