Dick,
Actually it's the fault of guys like me, you and FW as well as Dave G.
if we don't get the next generation involved in dairy farming.
Because of pasture based dairyfarming the opportunity exist for them to
be profitable if someone will just help them get started.
I believe there are plenty of young people willing to work hard and I
see opportunity for them to receive plenty of guidance from us as they
use our farms to get started. The New Zealander's have done it for years
but we don't see much of it happening here. On our farm we are still
producing milk for less than $9.00 per cwt. and since most confinement
dairies can't do it for that, we'll still be profitable when they are
crying loudly. Since most grass dairymen should be able to produce for
less than the confinement dairymen we should be able to stay
competitive. Any time we have an equal trade of the dollar with Oceania
the cost of shipping MPC here will be prohibitive.
Not sure yet when South America will become our dairy competition but
Oceania will face them too, the freight just won't be as much to the US.
Regards,
Dave Forgey
Interesting thoughts, Dave. I'll admit that my analysis just had our
'oil-purchased' President behaving in their behalf on his last term. NZ
dairy farmers have also had a 'tough' year, so while we may be on a
positive financial trip right now, we have no predictable financial
future. Again, ton's of kids visit this farm on various grazing and
Extension programs, and while they're excited about the farm and our
Jerseys, they all feel that they need a more profitable career. Next
step? Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Forgey" <forgraze@carrollnet.org>
To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 10:35 PM
Subject: RE: [Graze-l] Mr. Corn Silage
> Dick,
> Actually we have done something to slow the importation of MPC's into
> the US. It's called the softening of the US dollar. It doesn't hurt us
> to bad except for the things we need to import like oil and such. Some
> folks feel it's bad, but in reality it helps us, especially farmers,
> who have products to export. It also now makes alternative fuels
> competitive enough to allow development of more production, as long as
> grain prices stay low and we grass farmers won't complain too much
> about that. Reading the NZ Dairy Exporter recently shared that NZ
> will likely be using some US Dried powder to fulfill their short
> supply sent to other countries. That explains why there is close ties
> between Fonterra and DFA. I'm sure there are many who will argue the
> down side but for agriculture we just need to keep the US dollar soft
> long term. Perhaps our current administration understands that and is
> using it intentionally. Regards,
> Dave Forgey
> Dairyman feeding lots of grass and little else.
