Most people do not realize the sacrifices faced by small family farms. Most people hear about - if they hear at all- large farming operations with several hundred to several thousand head of dairy cows or beef herds or hogs. But what they don't really show is the small farms, sometimes parents and their children, sometimes just a mom-and-pop farm like we had with a couple hundred or less (way less in our case) dairy cows and their offspring.
We used to be able to sell the bull calves, or steers if we kept them that long, to help stretch that already strained budget, but now those same animals are listed on the farm news as "call market for pricing" which actually means: the prices are so low we just don't want to announce them. $5.00 a head (or less) won't even pay the haul bill or gas money if you haul them yourself, much less the time and effort put into caring for that calf until it went to market. If calf milk replacer and feed is added, depending on how long they are kept, is added, forget it! I've been seeing that a lot for months now.
Hogs were actually listed, but when one figures the pay to weight ratio it comes out to a boar (the breeding male pig) paying about $48.00 for a 400 pound hog, and that's only if it weighs that much. We farmers try not to let any hogs going to market get that big because, believe it or not, the heavier the hog, the less it pays. Several years ago people were actually finding hogs dumped in their yards by frustrated farmers who couldn't get paid enough to even cover the cost of feed, much less anything extra, like labor, electricity to keep them in the fence, water them, lights if kept indoors. The price at the store for just 16 ounces of bacon is $6.00 or more at Wal-Mart of all places. Where the hell is that extra money going? It sure isn't in the farmer's pockets. Milk is $4.00 to $5.00 a gallon that I have seen. I've heard it's higher elsewhere. Cheese is out of sight at the store. But the price farmers get is up and down, but mostly down, and barely - if at all- covers the cow expenses, but not the family expenses.
A few years ago our milk rep brought a rep-trainee out to our dairy. He had a huge operation himself and even a second farm (wow! the thought of it!) so I didn't know why he wanted a job as a milk rep for the creamery. He actually said we had a nice 'hobby farm'. I don't call the work we did a hobby and I requested he not return. That was offensive and he is a farmer, well, he owns a farm anyway. How can small farms that work their butt off day in and day out get by if the big farms are not even respecting us? Geeze!
When we sold out our milking herd brought roughly half of what they should have, but the people who bought them had a hefty commission added to their bill (and we had a sale commission taken as well) so they didn't get by as cheap as they thought either.
Feed prices are high, any medications (like electrolytes for chickens to combat weather or other stresses that might kill them), wormers, antibiotics for sick animals (shut up antibiotic nay-sayers; this isn't about the ethics of antibiotic use), etc., etc., fuel prices, utilities, equipment costs and maintenance, fuel, seeds, crop expenses, capital costs and insurance are astronomical. The cost of farming is very, very high and the profit is very low for small farms.
Families try to make sure the children still 'have a life' -as it were- being involved in clubs and activities, but still there are more who just no matter how hard they try they just can't spare the money it takes to do this. They have to feed (what they don't grow or glean from their own farms) and clothe their family. They need transportation and health care as well. Sometimes someone has to work off the farm to get by barely by the skin of their teeth. This makes makes it harder on the person left behind to do the farm work. The person who goes off-farm often has to do chores either before or after their job or both. I know a woman who is trying to farm, raise a family, and worked three off-farm jobs. You know what happened? Her family suffered, her farm suffered, and her health went to hell since she wasn't getting enough rest to keep going. She did finally have to go get a factory job, but it takes away from time with her children because it is night shift. She still isn't getting enough rest because a lot of the farm chores are done during the daytime when she is not at the factory, but they are meeting their financial obligations.
The next time you feel like blaming a farmer for the high prices at the grocery store or don't fully appreciate where your food or other goods came from in the first place, remember the sacrifices we small farmers make to get you that food, that cotton, or wool, or leather for your clothing, or the many other products you buy that are a result of farming.
No comments:
Post a Comment