Milk Market Moos - Thoughts from the Wise
Sherry Bunting
Farmshine February 8, 2008
Don’t ever apologize for what you do: be proud. What you do affects everyone from Main Street to Wall Street,”said Orion Samuelson to more than 600 dairy producers and agribusiness representatives, launching the 2008 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit at the Lancaster Host on Wednesday (Feb. 6).
While next week’s Farmshine will have more details about the Summit, here are a few noteworthy observations by Samuelson, the well-known “voice of agriculture,” who has been doing ag radio broadcasts for 55 years. He also knows how to milk cows, and did so by-hand until electric found its way to his family’s western Wisconsin dairy farm when he was 14 years old.
In his characteristic booming voice, Samuelson urged dairy producers to not let emotion rule over sound science when it comes to the production of food. You can’t afford to be a spectator on this one,” he said. “You must be on the team.”
He called the rbST issue a prime example of emotion – and maybe some financial greed – over sound science and sound reasoning. My bet,” he said, “is people who make these decisions gave little thought to what stopping technology will do to the hungry people around the world. It will literally take food out of their mouths.”
Just the day before (Tues., Feb. 5), I had the opportunity to also hear from another voice of wisdom, Penn State ag economics professor H. Louis Moore. He spoke at Lancaster Cattle Feeders Day and gave an interesting perspective on past, present and future. “I never thought 10 years ago, we would be in the position we are now with so many interesting things going on,” the perennial ag economist said. “Agriculture is entering uncharted waters.”
Moore talked about global changes and how technology has positioned U.S. agriculture. He noted that in 1932, 90 million acres of corn were planted, yielding 1.2 billion bushels of corn. In 2007, 86 million acres of corn were planted, yielding 13.1 billion bushels of corn. That’s amazing. He added that current technologies in development are just a few years away from producing 200 bu/A as a national average with projections of 300 bu/A by 2050.
In two days, listening to two well-respected long-time observers (Moore and Samuelson) share insight from their vast experience, I got the feeling they are shaking their heads at the thought of pushing food production back in time.
Perhaps Lou Moore put it best: “If we have to feed all of the new people coming into the world and all of the people already here who are now living better and wanting better food, we will never do it without technology.”
2007 Dairy Demographics
According to the Jan. 1, 2008 U.S. Cattle and Calf Inventory released by USDA last week, milk cow numbers were up 1% over a year ago. This is the first time the nation’s dairy herd has increased in 50 years of declining numbers.
The number of dairy farms in the U.S., however, fell by 5% in 2007, compared with 2006 and 9% below 2005. This, according to USDA’s Summary of Farms, Land and Livestock Operations for 2007 released Feb. 1. Farms with milk cows numbering 1000 and over increased, while farms with 500-999 cows stayed the same. These two farm classes, combined, accounted for 54% of U.S. milk production in 2007.
In Pennsylvania, 34% of the milk produced is from farms with 50 to 99 milk cows and 22% from farms with 100-199 cows, for a combined 56% of milk coming from farms with under 200 cows. Farms with 200 or more dairy cows produced 26% of Pennsylvania’s milk, of which 11% comes from farms with more than 500 cows. Farms with less than 50 cows produced 18% of Pennsylvania’s milk.
In New York, dairy farms with more than 500 milk cows produced 35% of the state’s milk and farms with 100 to 499 cows produced 39%.
