Thank you for fixing the price here. I grew up on a dairy farm and find that many consumers do not understand that the dairy farmer sells his milk per pound, and even by grade (Organic, A, B, etc), but that the consumer buys it at an incredible mark-up when it is later sold per gallon.

I would also like to comment that Mr. Hibschman is like many other farmers, meaning that he is working at a deficit. Yes, the land is worth hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars per acre depending on location, but many farmers (especially in MN where I grew up) can barely pay the taxes on their land, much less the operating costs without mortgaging the farm, a decision many small farmers choose not to make because oftentimes the farm has been in the family for several generations. I commend Mr. Hibschman and others like him for continuing an American tradition of working the land and passing it onto future generations.

Also most of the milk sold now days,is either skim,1%,or 2%. The cream that has been removed is used for butter and icecream.So the middle man is making more of profit, than one would think when you here a $ 1.03 per gallon is all the dairy man gets.

The American farmer has always been ripped off by the middle men.

It's not the middleman that is ripping the farmers off. It's the retailers that are making all of the money. Cheese prices are sitting around $1.14 per pound but if you go to the grocery store mild cheddar is $4.00 per pound. If you figure that you can purchase cheese for $1.14 and freight is an additional $.03 per pound to deliver it to a cutter and the cutter charges $.50 per pound for conversion, that's $1.67 per pound. That's a far cry from $4.00. Trust me, the grocery stores are the ones making all the money.

Who of you would wants to be a dairy farmer? Would you work at a job for a month before finding out what your wages would be? Would you manufacture a product and rely on the people who bought it to determine how much to pay for it?? This is the world of dairy pricing in the USA! Milk that was produced on May 1 was priced on June 6 by the US government!

How farmers get paid is a confusing and illogical system controlled by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA.) The farmer produces his milk and it leaves the farm on May 1. On the 6th of the NEXT month --37m days after it left the farmers's control--- the Department of Agriculture announces the price that must be paid for that milk. Those prices come from asking the plants that bought the milk "How much did you sell your fluid, cheese, powdered milk, and soft products like ice cream and yogurt for?"

These products are all in different "classes" for gov. purposes and thus milk buyers are allowed pay different prices for the same milk based on how they use it. The prices reported by those buyers are then translated into values for butterfat and protein and other milk components. Farmers are then paid for the pounds of butterfat and protein they produce. The prices quoted are based on 3.5% butterfat and 3.2% protein milk. This is only the beginning of the craziness. The country is split into milk marketing 'orders" and the announced prices are related to the distance from Eau Claire, WI. 70 years ago this made some sense as the midwest (WI and MN) were the main places that milk had to come from if somewhere else was short. The idea was that locals in, for example, FL needed fresh milk and shipping it in was almost impossible so the gov. wanted to encourage local farmers to produce enough. With our ability to get fresh milk from the midwest to anywhere in the country within 48 hours this system mo longer makes sense-- but it is still in effect today.

Milk pricing has now become social policy. It is "politically correct" to cheer for the "family farm" and offer up a token amount of government help to farms that only employ one family. If having a "family farm" is so wonderful, why are they disappearing? Could it have something to do with cows being milked 365 days every year with no weekends off and no vacations? Or perhaps that cows are milked at least twice a day, making the average work day for dairy farmers 12-14 hours EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK??? Could the system that forces farmers to accept the after- the-fact legislated price instead of setting the price based on their costs? Could it be that the work is physically and financially risky and the work is back breaking? Could it be that farmers are often required to accept a lower standard of living because the pricing system often gives no profit? The trumpeting call when milk prices fall below costs is "get more efficient!" With this collapse, the call has also been cut family living and often the only thing left to cut is health insurance-- which is costing the average farm family over $1050/month. It takes the average farmer a year to make $600/cow. This year farmers are LOSING $100/cow EACH MONTH. Do the math. If this goes on for a year, farmers stand to lose $1200/cow. It will take all their profits from teh next 2 years to pay back the loans that are keeping them going now and in that time all of their equiment will be older and more worn out with no money for replacing it. This 12 month stint will cripple the farmers and their local suppliers as their accounts become overdue.

So much for the illogical world of dairying. Any takers on getting into dairying? It is our love the cows and the sunrises and growing things that keepm us going mentally... it is our partner the bank that will determine how long we can weather this crisis.

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Thank you for your insight and thorough overview of the American Government in all of its "efficiency." I am saddened that it's become so corrupt now that you need not apply unless you are entrenched in the political corruptness. This country has become unrecognizable. It saddens me to the core; I like in the Midwest and am clueless as to how farms are run/subsidized. I always thought it would be awesome to be part of a farming family, but it's always been out of reach for anyone who doesn't inherit the land. Also, there are not many wealthy farmers unless they sell their land and get out of it. Too sad. God Bless you and your family for nourishing your community.

I think he means that he has loans for mortgage, buying out his relatives, etc. and if he closes, he loses his home and land. Other farmers may not have the loans because they did not borrow to modernize their equipment or buy out relatives, so if they close, they just sell their cows and keep their land and home; they do not have much to lose if they fold and wait for prices to go back up. He can't stop producing milk and wait for prices to go up; he will lose his home and lifestyle if he does.

What confuses me is the idea they would "fold up" but "they can absorb that."

Sorry - I see what you mean now - thanks

I believe he is implying those farms that have been around for a while will simply close down operations rather than take on the new debt necessary to survice their operations working capital shortfall during this downturn. By closing down their current operations, they may be able to service the current debt on past caex but, at the risk of being redundant, funding losses with new debt simply won't be considered.

Make sense?

One of the reasons we have fewer farmers is that farms are so huge today. At one time, farming a thousand acres would have been a big job - if just a few people are farming 15,000 acres, then that puts a lot of the former farmers out of the business.

I'm not critcizing Lancer85s family - I'm just saying that the industrialization of farming has been like Walmart in retail - the small family farm is too small of a business to compete. Farming is mainly big business now.

One of the reasons why farms have had to get bigger is because farmers are operating under such small profit margins. The average farmer operates under a 1-3% profit margin, so in many years the profit margin is not large enough to keep up with inflation. When things are that tight, you have to get big so you can absorb the inevitable losses.

The way America is treating its farmers it is only a matter of time before we are in the same situation with our food as we are with our oil, importing the majority of it. You think OPEC is bad, just wait till we get FPEC (Food Producing Exporting Countries).

Actually, the amount of land taken up by a wind farm is small (less than an acre per windmill). Landowners or renters can still graze cattle and farm around the windmill like normal.

A gallon of milk at Walmart in Goshen was $3.08 a year ago. It is now $1.98.

Actually, if you look at the different in cost of $1.03 (from the dairyman)now and $1.72 at $20 per hundred lbs., the cost of a gallon of milk has gone down about (roughly) the same amount in our local grocery store over the past year or so.

At the Walmart in Bluffton,In we have seen a 50 cents per gallon rise in price(over the last 4 months roughly) while Krogers has stayed steady.The family farm will soon be a past thing and like everything else the big corporations will soon be running them and will get these farms to go somewhere else and ship in food to us.

Soon they need to chane the name of this once great country to THE UNITED CORPORATIONS OF AMERICA

I live in VT and a gallon of milk here is about $3.79! We have no say and the farmers here get paid about the same as in Elkhart. This is a disgrace to farmers who work so hard and take care of the animals that we depend upon. I am embarrassed but have no choice but to pay the price.

I can't seem to post the web page for the Farm Service Agency - the cite keeps coming up blank when I click "post." But it can be found with Google by searching on "Milk Income Loss Contract"

The MILC is a joke. They are supposed to pay the difference to help a farmer break even on feed prices, so electricity, fuel, vets, mortgages, all those aren't touched. Basically allows farmers to feed their cows at break-even.

I recieved my MILC check in the mail yesterday. It was about a 1/10th of my feed bill, 1/3rd of my cow loan payment, and about 1/6th of my fuel bill for planting my crops, and 1/40th of my seed bill. Now where should I allot my MILC check? It prolongs the agony in most cases, keeps you starving that much longer in order to weather the storm. There has got to be drastic changes in the way we market and price milk or, as said here in a comment, we are going to end up importing our food like we do our oil, and it is much easier to skip our Sunday drives or going on vacation than it is to skip our Sunday lunch or holiday meals. Think about it people.

This family has a Syracuse address but lives in the southeast corner of Elkhart County.

That is one thing that I have found puzzling about the LACK of national reporting on the farm situation. This is only one single piece of the puzzle. Americans all over the country are engaged in a hard fight against the USDA and this has not from what I can see, made the mainstream national news.

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We take so very much for granted in the USA, especially our "unlimited" quantity of groceries. We need to be aware that if the number of farmers continues to dwindle, we may no longer have cheap unlimited amounts of even basic foodstuffs

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This is EXACTLY the problem, and it's not Elkhart alone facing severe issues. You have made a true statement and it is nationwide. Do people not care that they need to eat??? Why has the national coverage been so sparse of the USDA's draconian tactics and programs that will harm our local sustainable food supply? This is being done in the name of "big ag" rather than concern for America. Those proponents of the National Animal ID System and the upcoming bills to force the local small vegetable/fruit producers out of business, I just simply call traitors to America. This is our FOOD SUPPLY the govt. is overregulating to ineffective purpose to the point that yes the people that produce what you and I eat are going out of business!!!! NO FOOD = STARVATION and FAMINE.

If that sounds extreme to you think about it logically. The USDA's proposed plans will put livestock and local farmer's costs even more out of proportion to income. If you don't have income to sustain your production, you don't produce. We have an increasing population, we are looking at a plunging supply of those producing food and rapid reduction of land being farmed. Logic that out and tell me if you think we aren't headed for disaster? The factory farms are seeing big $$$ but at the expense of the people. Most of the cattle producers for instance have less than 100 head of cattle. As a farmer myself I've seen the numbers. If all those guys go out of business the few that are left won't be able to supply everyone with meat. Imported meat doesn't have the same standards and are less likely to be disease free. An ear tag in a cow and knowing where she originates does not prevent disease, nor does tracking. Only safety improvements at the large factory farms, the slaughterhouse and the grocery store will do that!

MSN, where are you on these issues? Why are you not covering the USDA listening sessions where overwhelmingly your public is against the NAIS? The USDA is taking ARMED GUARDS to these sessions to protect themselves for the first time in history. They know they are wrong and have little support and are so far refusing to acknowledge the consensus is AGAINST THE USDA and its falsehoods and bribery tactics. This article is a good start MSN but you are letting America down by so very little coverage of farm issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not a radical activist, just a normal everyday law abiding citizen with a few horses and chickens scared to death that my government has gone totally wacko out of control. I stand to lose my horses under NAIS. Get a reporter on this please and INVESTIGATE our side! Vilsack and his crew is coming close to inciting domestic disobedience and violence over this issue. Why not help to prevent that by bringing it home to the govt. how strong an opposition there is to get this program stopped?

A lot of other countries have much stricter food production and labeling guidelines and invest more money in enforcing them. I'm not suggesting that we should import their food, but rather look at our own food and oversight and ask why other countries REFUSE to import much of our food, food that we feed to our children. The FDA and the USDA have created a system in America where the healthier we try to eat the worse our health seems to get and farmers have to produce more to cover costs which only drives down the price of food and therefore forces them to produce even more. Meanwhile, we eat genetically modifies foods that are not labeled as such and have not been tested for long-term effects on our own genes, the health of the ecosystems where they grow, and our metabolism.

That may be true in some countries but it is not true of every country - witness all the contamination in food and products coming from China for instance. In the countries where animal ID is already occurring the govt. isn't telling the public about the bad problems it's causing and the fact corporate interests took over, thefts have occurred on a massive scale, numbers changed/reprogrammed and in Australia they have thousands of cattle in the system nobody can account for. In case of disease that will make sick cows more impossible to track than with our current system. It's a money making scheme on the part of multinational corps, not a disease control program because it doesn't work. Isn't the internet wonderful? I have personal contact with farmers in Australia so I know firsthand about the disaster to American farmers that's around the bend - and we have far more animals here. It will cost more in fines and jail time for not "registering' my horse and riding him to town not reporting to the feds and refusing to pay than it would for me to carry an unregistered gun to town. As far as the GMO's they have been shown in studies in Europe to be dangerous plus they are modified specifically to accept having POISON applied to them before they come to our dinner plate. Monsanto must think we are stupid since they own the gmos AND the poisons. I don't think anyone is stupid - dangerously misinformed and uneducated to what is going on maybe.

You are right. I buy my farm feed retail at Co-op, Tractor Supply or my local small feed store. My costs have more than doubled. I reduced my herd from 13 head to 4 and now I even pay sales tax on top of it all because I couldn't sustain profitability and claim enough profit for tax purposes to be a farming operation. The rising prices due to the drought plus the plunging economy killed our operation. There's also no help for horse producers from USDA programs yet we are being considered a "cash cow' for their ID system program for livestock ID. Go figure. Their cost analysis they are relying on is a complete joke and still forces horses in despite their documents acknowleding that it's all just guesswork. Costs are already practically unsustainable and they are adding more to NO BENEFIT to farmers or consumers. All taxes should be removed from feed and the farm feed producers should get more rightful share of a lower final cost of animal feed. Tennessee has put sales tax on all feed unless you are "registered" as a farm for profit. In this economy that's ridiculous. People buying horse, cattle, goat and chicken feed are feeding LIVESTOCK period. Plus we've had an ongoing farm disaster in this state from drought since 2005 - who's making profit? Sure we've had rain lately but pastures don't recover overnight and hay is still up in price.

I realize I'm naive - I'm not a farmer. But - who sets the price for which you will sell milk? I suppose it's the "middleman" but, who is that? More important, how does that person get so much power? I understand cows have to be milked so you don't really have the option of saying you'll stop producing for a while. But don't the really big operations have the same problem of increased costs and decreased revenue? If so, why wouldn't there be a "dairy farmer's association" or something similar to adjust the wholesale price of milk rather than the MILC? It works with big sugar - they've controlled the price of sugar in this country for many decades and have gotten so filthy rich as a result that it's embarrassing.

People will pay if they are forced to pay. But they have to be forced - that's why it works with gasoline. Price stays high even though the cost of oil plummeted. A pound of grouper was 6 dollars a couple of years ago. Now it's 17. And who would have thought a bell pepper would be more than three dollars. Or a grapefruit would be a dollar and a quarter? People don't pay that much because they feel sorry for the farmer or the fisherman - they pay it because the choice is don't eat it. American shrimp fisherman are being destroyed by Mexican shrimpers because the American costs are much higher but the consumer wants cheap - they aren't forced to buy American. People unhappily pay four dollars for a gallon of gas - even though they hate the oil companies. The choice is, don't drive. Americans wanted cheap cars - in came cheap cars from all over the world. Now they're not cheap but no more Chrysler and, maybe, no more GM. Same thing will happen with food.

Farmers need a movement like the labor unions of the thirties. It's going to get them nowhere to complain and appeal to fairness. But the small farm can't do it alone. Small farmers MUST get the giant famers to help, somehow. Or else recognize the small farm way of life is a nice memory but is gone. Or, of course, the farmers could continue to hope Americans will notice and do something about it - like demand that milk prices double.

Remember Leo Durocher - "nice guys finish last." There's no such thing as being "treated fairly." Farmers will get what they take. They will get not a single dime if they wait to be "treated fairly."

The research has been done and the publications are out there. Unfortunately, Con-Agra, et al. have too much power in congress to do anything the fix the situation.

Before milk hit the records highs, here in WA we were seeing milk averaging $15-$17 depending on your % butterfat and protein.

The cost of feed, veterinary care and other farm supplies was a lot lower a couple of years ago.

Yes, many farmers have this option, and in some areas it does seem to work.  But even co-ops struggle to pay farmers a decent price.  My brother is contracted with an organic co-op which recently met to discuss the drop in milk prices.  The co-op cannot stay running if they cannot sell their milk, and who is going to buy it when they can get it cheaper elsewhere?  The members of the operating board voted to cut prices by a certain percentage for the coming fiscal year.

Also, many small town feed co-ops are simply shutting down or laying off workers because they cannot compete with the larger retailers.

I am the daughter of a dairyman and I'm not trying to be rude but your comment is absolutely WRONG!! All dairy farmers are a member of a co-op someway or somehow unless they have their own processing plants, which only a small portion does. The co-ops do help a little but not much.

Once again, not to be rude, but I believe that you are being to naive. Without the American Farmer, big or small, you would starve to death. So why not protect them, even if it is a little bit. You think that we are whining?? Well take this as an example, whatever your job is, imagine your wage/salary bouncing around month to month. Or imagine your income being half of what it was the year before. Now I do realize that almost everybody is experience some sort of crunch due to the economy but farmers are taking the biggest brunt of it all. With operating expenses continuing to rise and profit margins shrinking, farmers have every reason to "whine" as you would call it.

Personally, my family has taking this hit very hard. We went from getting $20,000 a month in a milk check (which left us with usually $5,000 to spend after loan payments were made and part of the feed bill was taking care of) to getting only $10,000 milk checks leaving nothing, absolutely nothing left for anything. And you may be wondering, why are we even in the business?? Well as a young adult, I sometimes wonder why my parents are still farming, with all the ups and downs throughout the years. And then I realized the pride they have in what they and now myself, do is extremely rewarding, even if we're not making much money. My FFA Advisor had a poster hanging in his room that said, "Feeding the world. How's that for a noble profession?" And everytime I would see that poster I was reminded why we do what we do. So before you accuse any farmers of whining. Think to yourself, "Am I doing something as noble as feeding this country or even this world?" Unless, your answer is yes, BACKOFF!! And mind your own business!

One last point I have to make is that there are only two people who can protect this country from any kind of threat and they are the American Soldier and the American Farmer. The American Soldier, who is very commonly known for defending this country, will protect us if someone or something attacks us. But, if another country really wanted to hurt us they would go after our food supply if they knew how poorly the American Farmer was treated. So the next time you want to attack farmers think of where your food comes from and how much you take that luxury for granted because it very quickly disappear.

emevans- excellent post and all valid points. Some people seem to think that food comes from McDonald's or the local grocery store.