Family Dairy Operations In Trouble

Family Dairy Operations are Facing Trouble. One Dairy farmer is protesting in Washington.

See: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/dairy-farmers-plan-fourth-of-july-milk-dump-to-protest-low-prices/19534035?ncid=webmail

There was an article in a recent Acres/USA magazine that talked about using raw milk (highly diluted)as fertilizer, especially in pastures. there is an extension agent in NE that has been studying this and the results are great. if a farmer is willing to pay 2 to 3 times the going rate for their neighbors milk, it is still cheaper than synthetic fertilizer.
Wouldn't it be nice if the WA grain farmers helped out their dairy neighbors and helped themselves at the same time?
It is unfortunate that nationwide large companies and economic development people are encouraging mega farms and discouraging family farms. it is a very short-sighted way to go about things, in my opinion.

I feel that it is all about how much money the large compaines put in there pocket. The small family farm is on the way out,if you do not farm in the thousands of acers then you can not make it, you need volume to put the numbers in or the banks will not help, your to small. There are to many large farms that would like to see the little guy fall so they can get the land,it is to sad they all don't help each other it would be a better place.

While small operations are struggling, and industrial ag is doing it's best to exterminate the family farmer, take heart. There are quite a few places out there who just tighten their belts and quietly go about their business.
I can think of quite a few farms around here that are small, diversified, and the families make a living farming, while raising quite a few kids. These families have no off farm jobs to keep their operations going.
In fact it is the mega places that cannot exist w/o continual financing and are often really owned by others, usually large companies. This is vertical integration, it cannot sustain itself. A number of the bigger places around here have gone through bankruptcy, some more than once.
It is a fallacy that a farm cannot make money unless it is large. It is difficult, but it is possible.

I was raised on a dairy farm it take the whole family to make it work, we also had feeder cattle and farmed alot of land at that time but now it would be to small for most. Yes it was a good living and hard work, will worth it all. We were to small to make it work so we sold out most of it and rent the remanider. It is sad to see the the big operations take over, because they can. The banks like the sure money that is why they help them more and sell out the small operations.It is not that the small guy can't make it work, but the banks whant the sure money.

I am very sorry Bulldog.