# California Agriculture in trouble?



## Farmer Kitty (Feb 12, 2009)

California is the 5th largest Ag. identity in the world. 

I heard an interview with a California dairy man in which he stated that California's whole ag industry is going to be wiped out. He stated that it was due to the economy and their water situation. 

Their milk pricing is different than the rest of the country and currently their milk price is at $8.90/100 weight and above quota is under $8.

He had shipped 40 bull calves and they averaged $2 a calf (not sure if that was what they brought or after expenses such as trucking, etc.)


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

kitty everyone is in trouble this time.but the big dairies will hurt alot worse than you will.because if they arnt cash flowing enough.they will be broke in 6 months.he wouldve been better off giving the calves away.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 12, 2009)

Yes, everyone is having trouble. According to the interview, though, California's ag. will end up gone for the most part anyway.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

they are only telling part of what killing their ag industy.they arnt telling that farmland cost $10,000 to $20,000 an acre.or ptea trying to push the hog an chicken producers out.as well as the high cost of labor.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 12, 2009)

wynedot55 said:
			
		

> they are only telling part of what killing their ag industy.they arnt telling that farmland cost $10,000 to $20,000 an acre.or ptea trying to push the hog an chicken producers out.as well as the high cost of labor.


Those are factors they have been dealing with for a while now and I'm sure are not helping any now. The banks are forcing some off thier land because of the low prices they are now recieving and they can't make the payments. 

Yet, another reason to plan for the bad years. Anyone wanting to get into ag and can make a go of it now, should do okay as long as they remember this bad time and keep it in mind when doing financial planning.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

but they wont accept that 9 out of 10yrs its hard to pay all the bills.ab they dont realize the bank notes have tobe paid profit or no profit.


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## m.holloway (Feb 12, 2009)

boy, how can anyone pay 8.00 for milk. i don't buy milk now cause it's 3.98 a gal. i hope something change quick for that area!


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 12, 2009)

m.holloway said:
			
		

> boy, how can anyone pay 8.00 for milk. i don't buy milk now cause it's 3.98 a gal. i hope something change quick for that area!


The farmer is recieving $8.90 for 100 pounds of milk. Not the consumer. There's 8 pounds of milk in a gallon, if I remember correct!


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

your right kitty theres 8.6lbs in a gal of milk.on the ave the store sales 100lbs of milk for $50/100.an the farmer gets like $9/100 for the same milk.plus the processor sale all the by products from stripping the milk down.


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## m.holloway (Feb 12, 2009)

so does that mean someone is making double off of what you guys make. cause they pay you and when they stripe the milk of what vaule it has,and sale that for something else, shouldn,t you guys get a piece of that!


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 12, 2009)

m.holloway said:
			
		

> so does that mean someone is making double off of what you guys make. cause they pay you and when they stripe the milk of what vaule it has,and sale that for something else, shouldn,t you guys get a piece of that!


If only. We are at the mercy of the markets and don't get to set our price. There are things we can do to get a better price, contracting and such but, that's it.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

an everytime the milk price goes up where you can breath.all the stuff a farmer uses doubles.because they want all of our profits.


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## m.holloway (Feb 12, 2009)

well maybe one day we'll go back to when what money you made you got to keep. lol i know that won't happen in this life time. so i quess we'll all have to hang in there with what we have . if we don't hang ourself first. because of how hard it is getting. it getting pretty sad, we had someone here in florida, kill the whole family because they both lost their job and did'nt know  how to cope so they killed each other and their 3 kids!!!!!!


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

the sad thing is stuff like that will keep getting worse.because people panic.they dont realize that they can start over.


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## m.holloway (Feb 12, 2009)

they don't know how to start over, that's where the world has gone crazy. don't take this to heart, but once i heard that god was taken out of so many books,schools, and ect. we where going to be in trouble. just my 2 cents.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

your right about that.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 12, 2009)

Amen


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## m.holloway (Feb 12, 2009)

see,  i knew that this group is great!


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## wynedot55 (Feb 12, 2009)

yes we sure are.an some of us are hardcore cattlemen.


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## kstaven (Feb 14, 2009)

Farmer Kitty said:
			
		

> m.holloway said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The whole quota system put the dairy farmers in chains decades ago.

We gambled a few years back when we moved and went renegade (cowshare). I thank higher powers everyday that I listened then and did it. Must be all that rum runner blood from my family tree.

We have another local dairy that takes every drop they produce now and makes cheese, yogurt, butter etc and sells it. They gambled everything going that route and that is the only reason they are still running.

At 8.90/ hundred weight (74 cents/gallon) dairies can't keep the doors open in California, considering the lack of grass and the cost of feed, power, etc. 

I see a lot of very hungry people in our future.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 14, 2009)

dont worry the dairies will keep their doors open.we have been used to getting paid nothing for our milk.an we stayed with it for 27yrs.an if my old body wouldve held up.id still be milking cows today.when prices are low the dairies just buy an milk more cows if they can.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 14, 2009)

There comes a point in which many will go under though. When that happens there's less supply and when it drops to far people will go hungry. Another problem. With all those people moving into the country and buying up farmland to build houses, how do we keep producing food? No they haven't bought up all the farm land yet but the time is coming when it will present a huge problem.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 14, 2009)

we will have to hope that they will never sale all the farm an pastureland.because like you say if that happens we are in big trouble.or the people will start having backyard farms.an raise what they can themselves.


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## Imissmygirls (Feb 14, 2009)

It's my understanding that the big multi-thousand- cow dairies in California are basically corporation-run. They hire low paid Mexican workers to milk and salary professionals ( AI's, vets, calf-raisers) to work only the single herd.  I am sure there are enough cows in the one herd to keep them busy.
What worries me is the philosophy of calving at 2 yrs, BST'ing to extend the lactation, breeding back for another lactation and BST'ing again to extend profit for the lactation and by that time, they've worked out the cow. So she gets shipped.
If only half their offspring are heifers, HOW do they get enough replacement heifers to build their herds?  
This is a main reason why heifer prices are so HIGH. We in PA actually sold a 4H bred heifer to an Idaho farm and that was 10 yrs ago.  We had to sell 3 short bred registered Jerseys. They ended up in Idaho, Ohio and Missouri.  AS far I can tell, the Missouri one was an Amish farm, which sold out maybe 5 yrs ago and the animals ended up in Texas.
ALL the more reason for all of us to be concerned about the country-wide dairy business. It IS country-wide!
RE: the pricing:  I tried very hard to do a report on dairy pricing for a college class in the late 90s. Used 4-5 issues of Hoard's Dairyman intensive- explanations. BOttom Line: No one can really simply explain how the price is set except to say it has something to do with the price of cheese in the Chicago Mercantile Market.

Dear old dad always claimed  that the country had a vested interest in cheap food and the government will do anything it can to keep food cheap.  Is it a conspiracy?  At this point, who the heck knows, but I wouldn't bet the farm that it isn't.
Heaven help this country if the farmers ever unite. ( being independent cusses, they won't)
ON the other hand, the family farmers, IMHO, survive only because they are the most independent, determined and caring creatures on this earth. And most of their SO's have an off-farm job- at least in this area!
I'll get off the soapbox now. You guys hit a nerve

My dairy farmer buddy says the milk price here dropped disastrously too. Just when they were getting their head ALMOST above water.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 14, 2009)

your dad was right.an ive thought like that for the last 35yrs.they want cheap food so they keep their foot on farm prices.as for company owned farms that not exactly right.95% of all the mega dairies are family owned.meaning grandpa had a dairy.son joined the dairy grandkids joined.an the herd kept growing to support the families.the farm labor gets paid from $9 to $20 an hour.an alot furish milking clothes.as well as some housing.an some even have farm trucks.


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## jhm47 (Feb 15, 2009)

We'll all be OK in a couple weeks.  The stimulous bill has been passed, and we'll all be rolling in clover soon.  I wonder, will our money be direct deposited or will they send us paper checks in the mail?  

Wife is thinking about hiring a housekeeper when we get stimulated, but I suppose they will be getting stimulous checks too, so they won't need to work.  Told wife not to sell the vacuum cleaner just yet.  I suppose we could always hire an illegal alien to clean our house and not pay taxes on her like the big shots in Washington.  But then I suppose we'd be asked to be in the cabinet, and with our stimulous check and a big government paycheck, I'd have to get myself a girlfriend to help spend the extra $$$.  I sure can't expect my wife to learn to spend all that money at her age.

I tried to call our congresswoman to find out when we would be getting stimulated, but she hadn't read the bill.  Neither had our senators.  In fact, this bill was passed without ANY of them reading it.  I'm sure that they made certain that they would be well stimulated too, so they didn't need to bother themselves spending time reading the bill before voting for it.

Wife thought we would have to work on our taxes this week.  I told her that if we would quit paying taxes we might be able to get a big government job.  But then, she said that if we get stimulated enough we won't have to work, so we decided to file our taxes for another year.  It's  easier to work on taxes for a couple days and take the rest of the year off while being stimulated than to quit paying taxes and have to work in the cabinet the rest of the year.

Yachts---do any of you know if we could buy one online?  I see that Al Gore bought one recently.  It looked nice, and had a jet ski on the back.  One like that would be OK for now, but when we get our next years stimulous check we might want to upgrade.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 15, 2009)




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## GrassFarmerGalloway (Feb 16, 2009)

Everyone's going under.  That's why we all need our own backyard cattle so we can sustain ourselves when all hell runs loose!


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## GrassFarmerGalloway (Feb 16, 2009)

jhm47 said:
			
		

> We'll all be OK in a couple weeks.  The stimulous bill has been passed, and we'll all be rolling in clover soon.  I wonder, will our money be direct deposited or will they send us paper checks in the mail?
> 
> Wife is thinking about hiring a housekeeper when we get stimulated, but I suppose they will be getting stimulous checks too, so they won't need to work.  Told wife not to sell the vacuum cleaner just yet.  I suppose we could always hire an illegal alien to clean our house and not pay taxes on her like the big shots in Washington.  But then I suppose we'd be asked to be in the cabinet, and with our stimulous check and a big government paycheck, I'd have to get myself a girlfriend to help spend the extra $$$.  I sure can't expect my wife to learn to spend all that money at her age.
> 
> ...


LOL, for a moment there I thought you weren't kidding!  The yacht thing got me, though!


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## m.holloway (Feb 16, 2009)

if they stick around here. they will be alright.  the infor.  you give ,should keep us  ok. my 2 cents


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## wynedot55 (Feb 16, 2009)

more an more people are going tobe hungry.as wages go up.the cost of living will go up.


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## m.holloway (Feb 16, 2009)

i haven't seen wages go up. our wage is going down. self employed, no one is buying or fixing engines. our own son had to go unemployed from our bussiness. we can't afford to pay him.


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