The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Economics => Topic started by: CG6468 on December 06, 2012, 10:34:29 AM
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Iowa dairy farmers operating without federal safety net
Posted: Dec 05, 2012 6:06 PM CST
Written by Becca Habegger, Multimedia Journalist - bio | email
DUBUQUE COUNTY (KWWL) -
When the federal Farm Bill expired in October, the programs that protect dairy farmers expired along with it. A dairy industry without a farm bill could lead to much higher milk prices in the US.
For 24 years, Dale Gaul has been feeding his family by feeding his dairy cows and selling the animals' milk.
However, the drought this year plus other factors have driven up the price of feed.
"You went from $4.5 to $6 corn to $7.5 to $8 corn, and hay probably about doubled, the proteins about doubled," Gaul said on his dairy farm Wednesday afternoon.
He said he's in favor of market forces driving the prices of milk, but dairy farmers have, for decades, had the safety net of federal programs when milk prices plummeted. Until now.
"There's been various programs," ISU Extension and Outreach dairy field specialist Larry Tranel said, "like the CWT, where they pay farmers to sell cows, reduce production. There's been various supply management type schemes. There's been the MILC, the Milk Income Loss Contract... They would actually pay dairy farmers if milk fell below a certain price."
Tranel said all the programs that kept farmers safe in times of need expired with the Farm Bill in October.
Shit. Just what I need. I love milk.
$8 per gallon? (http://www.kwwl.com/story/20272346/2012/12/05/iowa-dairy-farmers-operating-without-federal-safety-net)
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Shit. Just what I need. I love milk.
$8 per gallon? (http://www.kwwl.com/story/20272346/2012/12/05/iowa-dairy-farmers-operating-without-federal-safety-net)
$5 gas....$8 milk.....but I bet Obama lowers the price of beer/wine/liquor for the voters in the hood.
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We go through 3 to 4 gallons a week. Yikes.
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I've had the same quart of mlk in my refrigerator since August.
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I've had the same quart of mlk in my refrigerator since August.
Bet the cat loves that. (Plop)
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$5 gas....$8 milk.....but I bet Obama lowers the price of beer/wine/liquor for the voters in the hood.
Nope. That stuff would be free for dem folks. Dey bes his buds.
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$5 gas....$8 milk.....but I bet Obama lowers the price of beer/wine/liquor for the voters in the hood.
The price of the beer I buy has increased 18% since Obama was elected.
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The dairy industry is the most convoluted markets there is.
Government dabbling since FDR has led to so many boom/bust cycles it is ridiculous.
There is a guaranteed market via subsidies so production increases and increases.
The government buys the excess and converts it to cheese and powder then resells it back on the open market.
The bulk of my customers are dairy farmers and no matter how many I ask there is not a single one that can tell me how the price/cwt they get paid is arrived at.
I have no real clue either.
It is a disaster.
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The dairy industry is the most convoluted markets there is.
Government dabbling since FDR has led to so many boom/bust cycles it is ridiculous.
There is a guaranteed market via subsidies so production increases and increases.
The government buys the excess and converts it to cheese and powder then resells it back on the open market.
The bulk of my customers are dairy farmers and no matter how many I ask there is not a single one that can tell me how the price/cwt they get paid is arrived at.
I have no real clue either.
It is a disaster.
Is the dairy program any worse than the sugar program ran by the Feds?
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Is the dairy program any worse than the sugar program ran by the Feds?
I am not familiar with the sugar program so can`t say but a fair guess would be yes.
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I am not familiar with the sugar program so can`t say but a fair guess would be yes.
All I've been able to understand about the sugar program is that it helps big corporations by limiting imposts and causes consumers to pay higher prices.
That is why so many food companies use high fructose corn sweetener instead of sugar, because it is cheaper. So I guess the sugar program also provides a subsidy to the corn sweetener manufacturers.
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Am I the only one that thinks that these farmers should have never been provided a subsidy to begin with?
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Am I the only one that thinks that these farmers should have never been provided a subsidy to begin with?
On one hand, yes, but on the other, smaller farmers need some sort of insurance to help them during droughts or flooding. Unfortunately the government has gotten so involved that there isn't much of a free market in any farm produce any more. Very few small farmers either.
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On one hand, yes, but on the other, smaller farmers need some sort of insurance to help them during droughts or flooding. Unfortunately the government has gotten so involved that there isn't much of a free market in any farm produce any more. Very few small farmers either.
Most farm subsidies are more a benefit to the end consumer more so than the producer. Strange thing about the enemies of crop subsidies is they would be some of the loudest criers if costs of groceries went up 200 - 300 %
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Am I the only one that thinks that these farmers should have never been provided a subsidy to begin with?
Nope.
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Most farm subsidies are more a benefit to the end consumer more so than the producer. Strange thing about the enemies of crop subsidies is they would be some of the loudest criers if costs of groceries went up 200 - 300 %
That is part of it,you don`t hear much nowadays but from the 40s through the 80s we had what was known as a cheap food policy.
The idea being that if the price of eating became a burden there would be a political fallout.
Now with the stigma of food stamps being erased that is not so much an issue plus society has fundementally changed.
Growing up in the 70s on a small dairy farm and a small community there was not the fascination with "stuff",you still mostly lived to get through the day and life and then success was if you had something to pass along to your kids.
To answer Richs question after having lived it and still am an eyewitness the answer imo is mostly no,the subsidies should not have been put in place as it causes the subsidized product to explode in quantity and then having the opposite affect...lower prices paid to the producer.
It kept my fathers farm barely afloat 25 years longer then it was viable because to try to offset the lower prices one tries to farther increase production and thus cashflow.
The truck always showed and the check was in the mail twice a month.
In the end though prolonging is not preserving and the smallest existing class of farm is eventually squeezed out and then the next existing size and so on until supply decreases and prices go up.
Then the green light comes on and off to the races for the next round.
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Nope.
Ditto.