USDA and small dairy farms :(

Sue D. <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Hi all, I mostly lurk, but I couldn't let this go buy without
a comment.
I always read the Food Day in the Oregonian and
was shocked to see a full page ad asking for help to
save family farms.
I guess I just have a soft spot for small
business and local farmers and dairies...just seems
to me that the USDA has gone a little overboard this
time...I think family dairies should be getting a pat on
the back and a "thank you" instead of being screwed
with.

Sad but true.

If everyone owned a dairy cow and an acre. Perfect world stuff.

Andy

Sue D. said:

Hi all, I mostly lurk, but I couldn't let this go buy without
a comment.
I always read the Food Day in the Oregonian and
was shocked to see a full page ad asking for help to
save family farms.
I guess I just have a soft spot for small
business and local farmers and dairies...just seems
to me that the USDA has gone a little overboard this
time...I think family dairies should be getting a pat on
the back and a "thank you" instead of being screwed
with.

Quote
"In a recommendation issued on April 13, 2005, USDA sided with large,
powerful dairy interests including Dairy Farmers of America (the
largest dairy cooperative in the nation) and Dean Foods (the largest
milk processor in the nation). Here's what they plan: Tax four
independent family farms located in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona
over one million dollars each per year and give that money to others
in the dairy industry. Consumers get stuck with higher prices while
the big guys increase their profits."

This is why the SO's family is now in hazelnuts and not dairy. They
originally had a dairy farm in the Laurel area - outside Hillsborough,
OR. Settle the farm in the 1870's. This [censored] drove them out way back in
the late 1950's early 1960's

Sandi

Andy said:

If everyone owned a dairy cow and an acre. Perfect world stuff.

Yeah, shades of Erskine Caldwell.

Do you really think you could feed your family and a cow from one
acre... perhaps your family... but you'd have to eat the cow or it
would starve.

Individually owned dairy farms are just not profitable, not even close,
few can even keep up with the taxes. I have a neighbor who owns some
60 acres. He raises some 45 head of beef cattle, some goats and some
sheep and some chickens. Fortunately there are people like me who own
land in the immediate area who permit him to use our land to raise and
harvest forage in exchange for his managing our land, he keeps the
forest from growing back, everything neatly trimmed, and doesn't
deplete or over fertilize the land. My 90 acres adds just a drop in
the bucket towards feeding his animals, he has a few others nearby with
variously sized parcels who also have the same deal. But the day is
coming when us forage suppliers will be ready to cash in on all the
taxes we've paid and take a hefty profit too, by selling to the big
housing developers, and that time is approaching like a high speed
train. Fortunately for my cattle raising neighbor beef is more of a
hobby, he works full time as a lawyer, his wife teaches at the local
JHS.

The time of the uneducated farmer is past... can't possibly send the
kids to college from just farming.... either join the big combines or
let the tax man take the farm. Only other way is triple the price of
food... altruistic dumb [censored] like you would be the very first ones
to [censored]. The real problem is over population... practice birth
control, keep yer pecker in yer pants, and since yoose ignorant
religious freaks won't the result is war. Yet another way yoose bible
thumpers rear yer violent heads, totally empty though they may be...
every war ever fought is the result of religion and nothing else. The
freedom to pray is no freedom at all, it makes yoose prey...

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

Andy said:

If everyone owned a dairy cow and an acre. Perfect world stuff.

Yeah, shades of Erskine Caldwell.

Do you really think you could feed your family and a cow from one
acre... perhaps your family... but you'd have to eat the cow or it
would starve.

Individually owned dairy farms are just not profitable, not even close,
few can even keep up with the taxes. I have a neighbor who owns some
60 acres. He raises some 45 head of beef cattle, some goats and some
sheep and some chickens. Fortunately there are people like me who own
land in the immediate area who permit him to use our land to raise and
harvest forage in exchange for his managing our land, he keeps the
forest from growing back, everything neatly trimmed, and doesn't
deplete or over fertilize the land. My 90 acres adds just a drop in
the bucket towards feeding his animals, he has a few others nearby with
variously sized parcels who also have the same deal. But the day is
coming when us forage suppliers will be ready to cash in on all the
taxes we've paid and take a hefty profit too, by selling to the big
housing developers, and that time is approaching like a high speed
train. Fortunately for my cattle raising neighbor beef is more of a
hobby, he works full time as a lawyer, his wife teaches at the local
JHS.

The time of the uneducated farmer is past... can't possibly send the
kids to college from just farming.... either join the big combines or
let the tax man take the farm. Only other way is triple the price of
food... altruistic dumb [censored] like you would be the very first ones
to [censored]. The real problem is over population... practice birth
control, keep yer pecker in yer pants, and since yoose ignorant
religious freaks won't the result is war. Yet another way yoose bible
thumpers rear yer violent heads, totally empty though they may be...
every war ever fought is the result of religion and nothing else. The
freedom to pray is no freedom at all, it makes yoose prey...

Sheldon

But your rant runs exactly counter to what the original poster was
reporting. Several "producer-handlers" (small integrated milk
producers) are able to profitably sell at *below* the government price
support level, and sell a superior product while doing it, and the milk
coops don't like it.

Oddly enough, the recent -- and ridiculous, IMHO -- medical marijuana
case in the Supreme Court (Gonzales v. Raich) strengthens the govt's
case here. The affected milk producers are not engaging in interstate
commerce, so the Feds should keep their nose out of it and let the state
handle it. But the Supreme Court has just ruled that the Feds can use
the Commerce Clause to regulate anything it wants and thus usurp the
states' reserved powers guaranteed by 10th ammendment. (Chief Justice
Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas and Sandra O'Connor agree with me that it's
an unconstitutional power-grab by the federal government)

Best regards,
Bob

Sheldon said:

Andy said:

If everyone owned a dairy cow and an acre. Perfect world stuff.

Yeah, shades of Erskine Caldwell.

Do you really think you could feed your family and a cow from one
acre... perhaps your family... but you'd have to eat the cow or it
would starve.

Individually owned dairy farms are just not profitable, not even close,
few can even keep up with the taxes. I have a neighbor who owns some
60 acres. He raises some 45 head of beef cattle, some goats and some
sheep and some chickens. Fortunately there are people like me who own
land in the immediate area who permit him to use our land to raise and
harvest forage in exchange for his managing our land, he keeps the
forest from growing back, everything neatly trimmed, and doesn't
deplete or over fertilize the land. My 90 acres adds just a drop in
the bucket towards feeding his animals, he has a few others nearby with
variously sized parcels who also have the same deal. But the day is
coming when us forage suppliers will be ready to cash in on all the
taxes we've paid and take a hefty profit too, by selling to the big
housing developers, and that time is approaching like a high speed
train. Fortunately for my cattle raising neighbor beef is more of a
hobby, he works full time as a lawyer, his wife teaches at the local
JHS.

The time of the uneducated farmer is past... can't possibly send the
kids to college from just farming.... either join the big combines or
let the tax man take the farm. Only other way is triple the price of
food... altruistic dumb [censored] like you would be the very first ones
to [censored]. The real problem is over population... practice birth
control, keep yer pecker in yer pants, and since yoose ignorant
religious freaks won't the result is war. Yet another way yoose bible
thumpers rear yer violent heads, totally empty though they may be...
every war ever fought is the result of religion and nothing else. The
freedom to pray is no freedom at all, it makes yoose prey...

Sheldon

Unless you are talking about some very [censored]-poor land, all of your
information is in error.

Bubba

--
You wanna measure, or you wanna cook?

"Sue D." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi all, I mostly lurk, but I couldn't let this go buy without
a comment.
I always read the Food Day in the Oregonian and
was shocked to see a full page ad asking for help to
save family farms.
I guess I just have a soft spot for small
business and local farmers and dairies...just seems
to me that the USDA has gone a little overboard this
time...I think family dairies should be getting a pat on
the back and a "thank you" instead of being screwed
with.

First of all, they are not small family farms. They are huge family
farms. And they have been benefiting for decades from an absurd unfair
federal milk price support program where by they get payments from the
taxpayers based on how far they are from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

They should shut the hell up. Or give back all that federal money.

del cecchi