History of Dairy Cows on Baum Farm

After having our Jersey herd for 12 years, we sold them as of January 1, 2019. Our reason for selling was we continued to make a significant investment in our labor, time and our finances with a continuing decrease in finance compensation. If things were better financially, we would have continued to keep the cows. It was very sad for us to sell our cows because we had gotten so attached to them. The following is our history of Jersey cows on our farm.

We purchased this farm in 2005. The plan was to purchase dairy cows and start a dairy. For the first 7 years, we had a few cows and did a raw milk dairy. We started with registered Jersey cows. We bred the Jerseys using AI with A2/A2 and New Zealand genetics. We used the New Zealand genetics to obtain a cow that does well on low to no grain and will thrive on grass. Our New Zealand Jerseys had excellent confirmation, great body condition and long lives.

The raw milk dairy did well but we did experience some problems that led us to discontinue it after 7 years. A major problem was the state laws were designed to limit the amount of sales for raw milk. The state only allowed us to sell milk from the farm. This limited our sales to about 3 milk cows worth. The cost and availability of liability insurance for raw milk was getting worse each year. The state rules required continually testing for TB even though other non raw dairies did not have to test in our TB free state. The testing was expensive, time consuming and risky. One year our testing resulted in stopping us from selling milk for 3 months until they approved our farm as TB free. This was due to one cow testing false positive. Since the herd size was continuing to grow we needed to do something else with the dairy to continue keeping the cows.

We then decided to start shipping milk commercially to keep the dairy farm going. At this time we had close to 15 cows. Organic Valley (OV) was looking for more milk and we signed on with them. We bought more cows and raised more to get our milk supply up. OV required a minimum of a 1000 lbs at each pickup. We invested about $30K in the barn and dairy equipment to get the facility up to a grade A standard. Grade A standard is required to ship milk . The facility was inspected 2 times a year to keep the grade A standard. We did very well on our dairy inspections with no real issues. Our milk quality was excellent and we received milk quality awards for every year we shipped.

The milk price for organic milk was good when we first started shipping and for several years. Since we had Jerseys, we received a higher milk price due to higher butterfat and protein. At this point we had 26 cows with about 20 milking. The average milk price for us was around $42/100wt. With this income and around 20 cows, we could pay for cows, make a little profit and hire some help.

Things changed and the organic dairy crisis started in the summer of 2018. OV and Horizon started dropping the price of milk. OV also started a quota system in which you could only ship a certain amount of milk. All the organic milk processors in this area: OV, Horizon, Stoneyfield and New York Niagara all started not taking on any new organic dairies. The demand for cows and farmers had stopped.

The base price of milk from OV had dropped to $25/100wt. At this price, our milk price was $32/100wt. Our milk price had dropped 24 percent and we were at the cost of production. All of our profits were now gone. This is like working for nothing as all the income goes to covering expenses. All the milking was done by myself and calf care was done by my wife. We could not longer afford additional help for the dairy. The outlook for organic prices recovering looked very dim due to the continual decline in the conventional milk market. The conventional milk price had now been down for 4 years with no sign of recovery. At this point we knew we had to do something about the dairy.

We believed our best option for the dairy was to sell the cows. Our goal for selling the cows was we must find them a good home. We were not as concerned for the cow price. We set the cow price low and found a dairy that would take the whole herd. The herd would go to a brand new dairy in New York state that had just been built.

We loved our Jersey cows and did not want them to go, but we had to. We were always amazed at our cows at how good they were. Our cows were trained to come to the parlor by name. It was always a thrill to have someone else call the cows and they would come to parlor no matter who called. For our Jersey cows, it took about two weeks for them to learn their name. Even months after not coming to the parlor (dry off) all you had to do was call their name and they would come again. It always amazed me at how well they knew their name. Sometimes I thought they were smarter than our Border Collie.

Now after selling our cows, the situation for the conventional and organic dairy has even gotten worse. The price for cull cows and young calves has dropped like never before. Cull cows and young stock used to be an income stream for a dairy. Now if a dairy farmer wants to quit farming they will get next to nothing for their herds. The price of milk is below production cost for the conventional farmer. The organic farmer's price is at his cost of production with no profit margin. Both farmer types can no longer quit farming without significant financial pain because their debts will not be covered by the herd sell off. The United States is destroying its farmer base and no one is stopping it.

We consider ourselves lucky that we got out of dairy farming at the right time. We got out when we could sell our cows for a fair price. We did not get a good price for our cows but they all went to a good home and that was very important to us. If times were normal in which cows are valuable, we should have gotten double for the cows. All of our cows were in excellent body condition and producing well. I would love to go back to dairy farming if prices would significantly increase for milk so farmers could make a profit, pay for the infrastructure, the equipment, land, and the cows.