No one keeps any statistics on how many times dairy farmers are told they need to get together.
Looking at Barry Wilson's "Dairy Industry Newsletter" (on-line and print subscription = $1,000/year)I noticed a further breakdown of the data produced by Hoards on the 50 largest cooperatives.
Barry notes some of the largest producer co-ops, in terms of volume per farm, expanded production in 2009. Continental, for instance, produced 5% more per farm. So much for meaningful markets signals. The average Continental produced 61.44 million pounds in 2009.
Ten of those farm would produce all of the of the milk produced by 727 Lanco farmers.
So, would America be better off if more than 700 Lanco farmers went out of business? I think not.
So what exactly is meant by the idea of all dairy farms getting together? I personally think that is code for there will be no meaningful discussion of the complexities of dairy in high places.
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Excuses are all we have received for a longtime. This "get together excuse" maintains the status quo for as long as possible. The status quo is transferring wealth out of rural America into the hands of the food gods.
ReplyDeleteIt is also an excuse for our dairy leaders lack of effective leadership truely on behalf of dairy farmers.
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