Thread: Dairy Farms and the illegals

We are all familiar with how Ryan and others claim the dairy farms need the illegals.

I found this.....

All in all, the level of support that dairy farmers receive from government programs, encompassing direct subsidies and indirect subsidies such as price supports, accounts for 73 percent of dairy farm revenues. That level of government intervention is unsustainable if one expects an industry to innovate and prosper.

https://spectator.org/a-pretty-cheesy-subsidy/

The dairy farms get 73 % of their income from the government and still need cheap labor provided by the invaders.
Something is very wrong with this picture!

Complete article and link.

Thanks to government, a dairy market that produces too much of a good thing.


America is glutted with cheese. In fact, the size of the American cheese stockpile just hit an all-time high. And before you say that that doesn’t sound like much of a problem to you (or one you’d happily volunteer to help solve if it were), consider how we solve it — with your tax dollars.

In 2016, dairy farmers facing low prices on milk asked the Department of Agriculture to help them out by buying up $150 million worth of excess cheese. The Department of Agriculture didn’t do quite that, but it did buy up $20 million worth — not once, but twice, for a total of $40 million. Not to mention that artificial government “demand” enables the dairy industry to charge the same taxpayers funding their bailout more.

Dairy in the United States is subject to a complex web of marketing orders and price restrictions that restrict the dairy industry’s ability to function effectively in a market economy. There are two main components to this system, known as the Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO).

The first of these components is a classified (as in “divided into classes,” not “secret”) pricing system. Minimum prices that milk handlers are allowed to offer are set based on four “classes” of dairy product, which are essentially fluid milk (Class I), soft milk products such as yogurt or ice cream (Class II), cheeses (Class III), and nonfat dry milk used for products such as butter (Class IV).

The Department of Agriculture uses an arcane pricing formula to set minimum prices for each of these classes of dairy product. This formula is based on region, with eleven different FMMO areas. The result is a top-down system which tries its best, but often fails, to manage supply and demand the way the market does on a daily basis with nearly every other product.

The second component is referred to as “milk pooling,” and it functions to standardize dairy farm profits throughout the industry. Some milk handlers pay into a “Producer-Settlement Fund” while others receive money from it, but dairy farmers receive the same government-regulated price no matter what.

All in all, the level of support that dairy farmers receive from government programs, encompassing direct subsidies and indirect subsidies such as price supports, accounts for 73 percent of dairy farm revenues. That level of government intervention is unsustainable if one expects an industry to innovate and prosper.

There are already far better policy options that can steer government away from micromanaging dairy operations. “Forward contracting” allows producers to negotiate an advance future price for their commodities without being bound by cumbersome FMMO rules (although only for Classes 2-4). This relatively recent program should be expanded to all classes of milk, and made permanent. Meanwhile, the Margin Protection Protection Program offers voluntary (but still federally run) insurance that producers can purchase to guard against massive financial downturns. While not perfect, that’s a better alternative than federally managed supply schemes. Of course, the best “insurance” the dairy sector could ever hope for is sound trade policy that opens up markets for products abroad. To give just one example, since the enactment of NAFTA, U.S. dairy exports to Mexico have increased by more than 500 percent.

Defenders of this decidedly anti-market system contend that dairy products are unique, requiring refrigeration in order to be shielded from the whims of the weather. But advances in technology have blunted these concerns, while concerns about the weather are hardly unique to the dairy sector.

The reality is that problems like the cheese glut tend not to occur in a free market. Most businesses tend not to face the kind of supply-demand imbalances that seem to be so prevalent in the agricultural industry because supply is determined by market conditions, not a government formula. No matter how well-crafted, these government formulas are inevitably poorer at predicting market behavior than the market itself.

Here also, the Farm Bill represents a golden opportunity for reform. Whether or not Congress will take it — and in the process doing what’s best for consumers, taxpayers, and ultimately producers — remains to be seen.

This article is part of an ongoing weekly series on cronyism in the Farm Bill. So far, articles have covered the intersection between the Farm Bill and trade policy, sugar subsidies, checkoff programs, commodity programs generally, specific commodities that get extra-special government goodies, the House’s Farm Bill legislation, food aid programs, and crop insurance.

https://spectator.org/a-pretty-cheesy-subsidy/

Yep, perhaps we have too many dairy farmers.
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Dairy Is on the Decline—So Why Do American Taxpayers Have to Subsidize It?

by Rachel Krantz - May 31, 2017

Here’s the good news: Dairy milk consumption—horrible forcows on dairies, human health, and the environment alike—is on the decline. A perfect storm of lessening consumer demand, trade squabbles, and scaled-back dairy purchasing worldwide has left dairy products piling up—especially in the United States.

The U.S. currently has more than 800 million pounds of excess American cheese and 272 million pounds of excess butter, the USDA calculates. Dairy factory farmers are forcing cows to produce so much that millions of pounds of excess milk are simply dumped onto fields. According to MarketWatch, “In the Midwest and Northeast, nearly 78 million gallons of milk have been dumped so far this year, up 86% from the same period last year.”

The bad news? Despite all this milk going to waste because nobody wants it, the U.S. dairy industry is still heavily subsidized by the government—and receiving taxpayer bailouts as a result. Lawmakers lobbied by the dairy industry are asking the USDA to continue using taxpayer money to buy excess cheese. Last year, the agency spent $20 million to do so and this year has already spent all the authorized funds. Now, according to a USDA spokesperson, a new request for yet more taxpayer money to be spent subsidizing this failing, cruel, and unhealthy industry is being considered.

Gee, if only there were some way to stop forcing cows to produce an unnatural and inhumane quantity of milk...

"You can't turn the cows off," says Ken Nobis, president of a dairy cooperative in Michigan. Actually, you can. You allow them to naturally live out their lives and lactate only for their babies. As the dairy industry stands now, cows are keptcaptive, pregnant, and lactating against their will at a nearly nonstop rate for their entire shortened lives. There’s certainly nothing natural about this and nothing that can’t be “turned off.”

Instead of adjusting to consumers’ demands for healthier plant-based milk alternatives, the dairy industry is depending on bailouts from taxpayers—many of whom are sick of and made literally sick by their products. The times are changing: Consumers are realizing that they don’t need dairy to be healthy and happy, that in fact they’re better off without it. It’s time for the USDA to get with the times, stand up to the dairy lobby, and protect the health of the American people. It’s time for the USDA to stop subsidizing animal cruelty.

Instead of protecting a food group that’s been proven to increase Americans’risk of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, digestive disorders, and a whole other host of health problems, what if our government helped make vegetables, fruits, and nuts more available in schools and more affordable in food deserts nationwide? What if the government used that same money to help America’s dairy farmers—many of whom may want a more humane and sustainable source of income—transition to plant-based farming that has a less disastrous environmental impact? Now that would be a decision in the best interest of the American people.

In the meantime, you can protest USDA dairy subsidies (and meat subsidies, for that matter) by contacting your representative—and by joining the millions of people who are taking a stand for animals, the environment, and their healthby transitioning to a plant-based diet.

https://www.mercyforanimals.org/dair...hy-do-american

Originally Posted by MW

nearly 78 million gallons of milk have been dumped so far this year, up 86% from the same period last year.”

The tax payer has been forced to pay 78 % of the cost of producing 78 million gallons of milk that is poured out.

I would like to know the average annual income of these farm owners. I guarandamntee it is very different from the annual income of my Dad who placed one of these by the side of the road in the 1950's era.

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

The tax payer has been forced to pay 78 % of the cost of producing 78 million gallons of milk that is poured out.

I would like to know the average annual income of these farm owners. I guarandamntee it is very different from the annual income of my Dad who placed one of these by the side of the road in the 1950's era.

My grandfather had a handful of dairy cattle and used to do the same thing. He personally milked his small heard every morning and worked his crops the rest of the day. Probably not many of those small farming operations around these days.

DAIRY FARMER GETS PRISON TIME FOR HIRING ILLEGALS

Trump Commutes Sentence of illegal alien employer

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Trump Commutes Sentence of illegal alien employer

Actions speak louder than words.