Obama's World Thanksgiving.
Posted on 10/12/2016 12:33:01 PM PDT by Early2Rise
Farmers in the U.S. are pouring out tens of millions of gallons of excess milk, amid a massive glut that has slashed prices and has filled warehouses with cheese.
More than 43 million gallons’ worth of milk were dumped in fields, manure lagoons or animal feed, or have been lost on truck routes or discarded at plants in the first eight months of 2016, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That is enough milk to fill 66 Olympic swimming pools, and the most wasted in at least 16 years of data requested by The Wall Street Journal. .......... American farmers are in the process of harvesting record-large corn and soybean crops, and meatpackers are now producing the most ever meat and poultry. As a result, food prices in the U.S. have plummeted and farm incomes this year are headed for their third consecutive drop. ................
On Tuesday, the USDA pledged to buy about $20 million of cheddar cheese to help struggling dairy farmers, the second time it has intervened in the market in less than three months.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Some shedds have a collection pit under them where the manure is then pumped into a storage tank. So, the grates gave way and the animals fell in and broke legs, etc. No way in hell can you get them out.
I am AGAINST these big corporate farms. I have also seen them go to their rearing farms where they raise the hiefers and while cleaning out the yards they dig up dead heifers. Never had a clue becuase aome of them dont clean these yards up in the winter since the manure will freeze as soon as it hits the ground.
I worked for an implement dealer for a years and used to go on service calls to these places and saw it first hand.
BTW..they can howl all they want because a year ago-and still to this day, they were getting BIG MONEY for their bull calves. The beef industry were crying for feeders since they got rid of a lot of their herds from the drought a couple years ago. Many of the small dairy farmers were breeding their cows to throw beef calves for a season. They made money.
My dad used to say that.
Indeed. So many complain that prices are unstable without intervention, then blame artificial shortages and surpluses on the free market. Remind you all of another price that’s currently much lower than it should be?
Notice how in the agweb article they quote a “part-time USDA economist”
Are those the algae-filled Brazilian swimming pools or the regular type?
Why not make cheese instead of dumping it?
Well said.
Anyone seen lower prices in the grocery store? I haven’t.
How about supplementing those sparse Moo school lunches allowing kids to get two milks instead of one and maybe a couple ounces of cheese? Of course, can’t have ice cream because that’d be too much fun.
Make it into powdered milk and it’ll last for years.
Send it to Venezuela or Haiti or Ethiopia, etc.
Lower the grocery store prices and customers will buy more.
Boost the supplies sent to the military.
There’s a hundred ways to use it without dumping it.
How about supplementing those sparse Moo school lunches allowing kids to get two milks instead of one and maybe a couple ounces of cheese? Of course, can’t have ice cream because that’d be too much fun.
Make it into powdered milk and it’ll last for years.
Send it to Venezuela or Haiti or Ethiopia, etc.
Lower the grocery store prices and customers will buy more.
Boost the supplies sent to the military.
There’s a hundred ways to use it without dumping it.
No, there isn’t a limit.
Profit is the entrepreneurs' reward for figuring out how to make something for less than customers are willing to pay for it.
If they can't do that, it's a sign they should bail out of the business. I'm nostalgic about the family farm, but I'm not willing to subsidise them.
Converting to cheese adds another layer of costs, these farmers are already refusing to sell basic milk because of low market demand. In a free market they’d take any price above zero to defray overhead, but with “other people’s money” dumping is the easiest option.
You may be too young to know this but when I was a kid, the government bought up milk and made butter and cheese for the low income crowd. Also, peanut butter and honey. If there was an excess, which there usually was, anyone could come by the office and get some. That was the best cheese ever.
The schools got tons of peanut butter so we had some sort of peanut butter on our lunch trays every day (no one died of peanut allergies). The lunch ladies would make big pb cookies, put pb and honey in a little Dixie cups for apple slices. Honey in Dixie cups for their heavenly yeast rolls. Or just a blob of pb on the tray.
If it was done then, it can be done again.
Farmers get government subsidies for everything under the sun.
It won’t be easy getting the EBT crowd off of lobster and steak. They’re not going to like the pb&j sandwiches.
43 million gallons? Someone has to be crying.
Placemarker
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