Many moons ago, I used to play C&R at a isolated resident post, 30 miles from back up.
One of the richest LA car dealers had a little spread there, grew a little alfalfa. He loved to get a snootful of whiskey (Jamesons or Bushmills - I forget which, it was a long time ago) and drive around loaded in his little ORV, no problem, he stayed on his own 3 or 4 square miles that he owned.
He told me he lost about $50,000 a year on his ranch, no problem, he liked the freedom.
Kind of a clue that the alfalfa - which is nothing but water - via Edsion and the sun - courtesy of Our Divine Creator - wasn't really viable on the free market, hence he was subsidizing some milk cow somewhere.
If you understand the free market, then you know somewhere, someone was drinking milk at less than it's true cost of production?
But our gov't does allow for farm losses on Schedule "A"?
Is that why the government also has dairy programs? To boost the price back over the true cost of production?