The dairy crisis continues

Here is an email I received today:

"I tried to post a comment on your page but, I'm not sure that it worked.  I am a 41 year old single mom of the best 2 children in the whole world and I am also a dairy farmer.  I just wanted to let you know that i know where you are coming from!  This past week we missed two milkings because I was behind on my electric bill and they turned it off.  It took me 24 hours to get the power back on.  I couldn't find anyone with a generator that I could borrow or anything.  My poor cows were bellowing and leaking milk everywhere.  Not one person cared!  People just don't know what we are going through right now.  I have never been this poor in my life and the cows eat better than we do.  On top of that, I had surgery on my neck on March 9th and have had no choice but to pay someone to milk my cows for me for the past 6 months.  I have not made a penny.  I had a good friend and neighbor who lived less than a mile down the road.  His name was Ronnie Cox.  One morning, he milked his cows, went to the house, got his gun,  and shot himself in the head in his front yard.  After that, his son, Billy Ray, took over the farm.  One year later, Billy Ray, was found hanging in the hay mow of the barn.  What is this world coming to??  I could go on for days but I just thought that I would write and let you know that you are not alone.  I believe that this hardship is just beginning. What are we going to do? I thought that I had my cows sold in October.  I sold them on a milk assignment and the guy never paid me.  I ended up getting them back in January thinner than a rail and almost unrecognizable.  I cried so much it was horrible.  My cows have always been my pets(jerseys) they come when i call them. and follow me all over. It cost me almost $10,000 to get them back and start getting the weight back on them.  Anyway, like i said, I am rambling now. Just wanted u to know that I am just as disgusted as you are I am struggling just as bad and willing to do something about it as well.  If you can think of something I could do to add to what you have done already, please let me know."

 

This is another sad story.  Does anyone have any ideas what we can do? It seems like nothing is working.  Everyone, including the government, is talking in circles and nothing is being done.  The price of milk is pathetic.  I have read multiple news reports that continue to blame the dairy farmers because they keep increasing their milk production and are bringing their young heifers on board.  Of course they are!  How else can you keep afloat???  There are two ways to make money - either the price has to go up or the milk production has to increase.  As a dairy farmer, you cannot control the milk price, so you do the one thing you can do - increase production.  This is going to continue until either the whole dairy industry collapses or everyone can come to an agreement.  Unfortunately, if I was a betting person, I would bet that the whole thing is going to go down in flames.  How depressing.