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Originally Posted by Daytona-Flyer
Most people don't understand agriculture business and fail to grasp the importance of farm subsidies. If this was not done we would have chaos in the farm industry.
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Gee we wouldn't want to have choas in the farm industry, we're much better off having choas in the oil industry.
BTW my brother in law is (was) a dairy farmer in upstate New York, he no longer is a dairy farmer partailly because of the government regulating the friggin dairy industry. You would figure the more milk he sent to market the more money the farmer would make and the more milk there would be therefore keeping the prices lower, well they didn't make more money, fact is if he would send more milk than the government said he should he would be penalized and recieve less in his milk check. Go figure. But the main dairy plant in his area, Kraft, they never miss a beat, never lower their prices to the end user, only to the dairy farmer in the area.
I'm really not the expert daytona-flyer as far as farming and farm subsadies go but my brother in law is, if you like I will give you his addy and you two can talk, he can fill you in on all the government details on how they treat the farmers and dictate terms on loans, subsidies and what it's like to deal with the government from the farmer end. He can tell you how rich he got after 30 years of working from 5:30am until 7:30pm every single day of every single month of every single year with no time off for illness or anything else. No matter what the cows have to be milked twice every day, the free stalls need to be cleaned everyday, the barn needs to be cleaned everyday, the tons of manure needs to be spread, hay needs to be cut and bailed and put out, and all the farm machinery needs to be maintained.
In 2006, the price dairy farmers received for their milk was well below that of 25 years ago and below the costs of production. Costs of production continue to increase with very high fuel, feed, energy, fertilizer and other operating costs. These conditions have resulted in unprecedented losses for dairy farms. USDA estimates that New York lost 460 commercial dairy farms in 2006. While milk prices are currently on the rise, increased costs of production and high debt loads continue to challenge New York’s dairy industry. As recently as 2004, New York dairy farmers were receiving $15.94 per hundredweight of milk, according to Farm Bureau analysis. This year, the average is $12.76, and in some places, it is lower than that.
Your statement "If this was not done we would have chaos in the farm industry" is really untrue my friend, the farm industry is in chaos if your a farmer, hell they are making less profit than they were three years ago. If your boss told you today that he was going to rollback your salary to what it was three years ago you would pack up and go work somewhere else, unfortunately farmers can't do that.