>Your dead right there, walking a cow(s) to feed her is whole lot cheaper
>than starting a tractor to bring the feed to her ! You don't even have to
>cart the manure away. Cheers AJS
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Bernie VanDalfsen" <bvandalf@direcway.com>
>To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
>Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 3:49 PM
>Subject: Re: [Graze-l] Export & dairy economics
>
>
>> I think $40 oil will hurt us more than NZ. We use more fuel producing
>> milk at the farm level than NZ cause we do more feed harvesting.
>> Operating costs for US dairies will go up much higher than NZ.
>> Shipping is cheaper transport than truck or rail by far. Cost of producing
>> milk in Wisc plus processing then trucking to distant states may put Wisc.
>> at a greater disadvantage when delivering cheese or butter to places like
>Florida.
>>
>> Bernie
>> Reeds, Mo.
It's all proportional. Cows in the US producing 20,000 to 30,000 lbs. vs
Kiwi cows producing 8,000 lbs. There are reasons those western state's
dairies are doing well, even at lower milk prices than received elsewhere.
And no, WI is not at a disadvantage shipping to FL. Heck, you can even
find WI cheese in Hawaii which is closer to NZ than to WI. The real
measurement is quality. WI entries consistantly win 1/3 of the top awards
in World Cheese Contest Competition.
Dave G.
