graze-l January 2006: [SPAM] - Re: [SPAM] - Re: [SPAM]
- Re: [Graze-l] [SPAM] - Winter Grazing - Found word(s) barn farm in the Text
body - Email found in subject - Email found in subject - Email found in
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Hi Greg,
I think that it is true in most areas that require tight nutrient
management control. I don't see it as a can of worms, just dealing with
practical farming realities. You are required to account for all
nutrient flow on your farm and it requires extensive record keeping for
CAFO's which are the larger farms. It is not easy to have enough
adjacent grazing land for large milk cow herds although if you were
really inclined to graze it could be done for some of the livestock.
Most dairy farmers are not comfortable (what they tell me) having their
cows out grazing and greatly prefer to have them close by to observe and
reduce handling to the minimum. So it is a combination of factors. After
all, you have to want to graze in order to do it. No one is making you
do it and there will never be laws that require it since nutrient
management will always be in the back of your mind.
Eventually, this will be coming to the small farms too. Not to mention
the ID requirements nightmare for everyone, but that is another issue.
You are very correct that the crop subsidies do skew the market. I don't
support these programs, but most farmers do. Like about 95 + % in my
county. Unfortunately, due to economies of scale, these kinds of
programs always tend to help the largest farms more.
When I was a county farm bureau coop director for a few years, I would
discuss this with many farmers and the clear consensus is, that they did
not begrudge farmers getting their share as long as they got theirs.
The other factor that you have found is that land prices have moved up
way faster than inflation here in the U.S. over the past decade. This
makes it much more difficult to do pasture based farming.
Also, farming has to become much larger scale in order to provide any
kind of return for the few remaining families involved in agriculture
ownership. I know that many think this is a bad thing, but in many cases
it does increase the quality of life for those folks and their (many)
employees. The employees get a much higher wage than if they tried to go
on their own and live a subsistence life as we see with so many farmers
here. There are an increasing number that can not even take care of
their basic living costs and forego health insurance. As long as we can
increase productivity with a (very) mature industry such as farming, we
will keep doing it. And that means larger units of operation to give
enough of a return.
I know that I could never tolerate the pressures and risks of farming as
a full time occupation so I can see why there is a trend toward more
security. The numbers just get too big and one year you do very well and
suddenly, with market and weather risk, you may fail and see your entire
life savings gone. Most people with non farm occupations do not have
that kind of situation in their lives.
You have to understand that my wife and I come from a farming
background and know only too well about what can happen in farming when
we saw close relatives and friends fail to survive. And this was not
some thing due to recent events but was true decades ago.
By the way, has anyone been watching the "America's Heartland" TV
program? It is done on HDTV so is very high quality and is sponsored by
the American Farm Bureau Federation and Monsanto. It is prettied up a
bit so that city folks don't get to see things that might be considered
by some to be too untidy, but it does cover some of the different
approaches to farming occupations, even some direct marketing and
specialty crops too.
http://www.fb.org/news/nr/n
r2005/nr1006b.html
or
http://www.rfd-tv.com/shows/hea
rtland.asp
Sincerely,
Rick W.
Gunthorp Farms wrote:
> Rick,
> I know you've said it many times before but can you please explain to
> me how a large grazing farm can't meet nutrient regs in Wisconsin?
>
> I hate to open up this can of worms but I think one of the biggest
> reason that grass farming never really caught on big in the US is
> because crop farming in the US has a guaranteed price floor and highly
> subsidise crop insurance for a guaranteed income level. That is a
> huge factor in banks desire and ability to finance large pasture based
> operations. While grazing is low input when you add in the land cost
> it too is highly capital intensive.
>
> I'm almost ashamed to say that I've offered a lot of very, very small
> pastured pig operators advice (with virtually none that were even
> remotely close to a viable commercial size) but the only handful of
> large, very large operations that I've offered any advice are going in
> down in South America.
>
> In only a handful of years it looks like most grain and livestock will
> be controlled by the bigs and the work done under some form of
> contract production. The sad part is it sure looks like the average
> mindset in the US farmer is they don't mind being in this position of
> no risk and no reward. It sure seems puzzling to me.
> Greg
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "KV9U" <mrfarm@mwt.net>
> To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
> Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 11:26 AM
> Subject: [SPAM] - Re: [Graze-l] [SPAM] - Winter Grazing - Found
> word(s) barn farm in the Text body - Email found in subject
>
