Dairy farming is dying. After 40 years, I’m done

Washington Post ^ | Dec 21, 2018 | Jim Goodman

[ETL]

After 40 years of dairy farming, I sold my herd of cows this summer. The herd had been in my family since 1904; I know all 45 cows by name. I couldn

[gattaca]

bmp

[trebb]

My thoughts too - more like a 4-H hobby than a dairy farm...

[9YearLurker]

Unfortunately that’s not all Roundup does.

[marktwain]

Do you therefore consider opiate drug usage good? It is, after all, unnatural. Do you therefore consider a homoerotic lifestyle preferable? It is, after all, unnatural. You have essentially made the absurdly categorical assertion that the unnatural is superior to the natural.

People irrationally worship "natural". That is what I am attacking.

Yes, unnatural is better than "natural". Natural is generally defined as what exists without human intervention.

The natural that we find so wonderful is unnaturally maintained by us in national parks and wilderness.

I love wild places. Deep introspection reveals the attraction is due to the the illusion that they have few humans,and are thus available for use without competition.

I also love civilization. My definition of civilization: Hot showers, refrigerated drinks, and Internet connections. If those three are present, you have civilization.

Perhaps a better way to say it is that "natural" is a terrible way to determine "good". Some natural things are good, some unnatural things are good.

[Farmer Dean]

I know.I am so damn tired with ag companies withholding vital info.I'm just getting over colon cancer,I wonder if...….

[9YearLurker]

My farmer father had a nasty case of that—but lived another 20+ years. Wouldn’t surprise me.

[MHGinTN]

Without oats and apples, I might starve!

[MHGinTN]

Oh yeah, and Ice Cream and Green beans and Roma tomatoes and cat food, got to feed my babies ... staples don’tchaknow.

[N. Theknow]

While I bought one or two gallons of whole milk a week or so.

When the kids were little we used to spill that much milk.

[combat_boots]

Big congrats on getting over colon cancer

[Rebelbase]

The small farm dairy has been in decline for 50 years. About 10 years ago I took a road trip through part of central NC for the sole purpose of viewing the skeletal remains of a once thriving small farm dairy industry.

Mile after mile of abandoned and rotting silos and milk barns are still there.

[ETL]

Yes, I lived for a year in Upstate New York, in the center of what at least was dairy farm country. In fact, I had bought and lived in an old farm house (1876). Although we only had about 3/4 of an acre, a farmer who lived down the road owned much of the land around us. Our property was actually once his. Directly across the road from our front porch he kept some of his existing dairy cows. Anyway, he had subdivided much of the land he had owned and sold the properties as individual lots. He said the business had slowed considerably.

[SaveFerris]

lol

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I had a problem 30 years ago after an extended illness. I kept going after it. A difficult period of months but eventually all returned to normal. During that period, even vanilla ice cream was a problem.

Back when I was about 25, I had a minor sickness - and found I didn’t tolerate milk all of a sudden. After a couple of years I started buying powdered milk just to put in my hot tea - and came to realize that the problem had gone away.

[SaveFerris]

I think mine originated as water-borne. Those were not fun times.

[generally]

IMO 45 cows is not enough to provide income for a family.

Imagine if he said that he had ONE cow and was unable to keep the farm going. Everyone would laugh at how absurd that sounds. How about 2? Same.

So how many does it take to make a go of it? Most people who know anything about the dairy industry would probably say more than 45.

In the past, a farmer could make it with fewer cows. But as the business has become more competitive (automation, for one thing), the number of cows needed has risen.

[generally]

LOL. Thanks for the ping!

[daniel1212]

few years before we sold our herd, we had to install huge fans in our barn — the summers were getting too hot for the cows to be out during the heat of the day. Climate change would have made our future in farming that much harder. We could have adapted, I think, but we ran out of time \

I was wondering why WAPO would want to run a story about hardworking farmers.

[daniel1212]

Time to mooove on.

Udder nonsense!

[daniel1212]

An even better chart is provided by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. The summer temperatures aren't any hotter than they were many times before in the long history of the farm.

Then what must have happened is that the cows went to college and learned intolerance of any discomfort.