Over 400 turn out for crucial Holmes County dairy meeting
There is a lot at stake in this dairy crisis, not only for the livelihoods of the dairy farm families of Holmes County, but also the region's economy, which is heavily based on tourism in conjunction with the area's cheese houses and dairy farms.In Holmes County, and across the nation, dairy farmers have been losing $100 per cow per month since January. Not only have they depleted their cash reserves and credit lines, they've also spent down their equity, and the value of their cows has been halved. Meanwhile, large dairy processors reported record profits for the first half of 2009. National average retail cheese prices averaged 4 percent higher than last year from January through July, and national average fluid beverage milk prices declined only 22 percent. And yet, the milk price paid to dairy farmers has fallen 47 percent below last year and 30 percent below the average dairy farmer's cost of production.
"People really pull together here," says LaVonne DeBois who operates Amish Heartland Tours, Millersburg. "I've seen the effects of low milk prices on these farms. More and more wives are wanting to open their homes (to tour groups) for meals because they need to support their declining farm incomes."
Known as "Little Switzerland," the stretch from Sugarcreek to Millersburg certainly lives up to its name with cheese houses reflecting Alpine design, rolling hillsides dotted with grazing cattle, and the twists and turns of county roads punctuated by clusters of 20- to 60-cow dairies. In fact, Holmes County, is home to more Amish than Lancaster County, Pa., and the dairy business is viewed as absolutely critical to the fabric of this community.
The mission to conduct a meeting here with area producers and their local, state and federal officials began when Nelson Weaver saw a story in Farmshine about a similar meeting at Levi Fisher's Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farm in August.
Weaver, a former dairy farmer, operates Trail Farm Supply near the village of Trail. His son now operates the dairy farm. Weaver and Dr. Eric Shaver of East Holmes Veterinary Clinic started making calls and gathering interest. Then, they advertised the meeting, lined up the speakers—including producers, feed company representatives, lenders and other vendors, and they invited not only officials, but also more than a half dozen area milk and cheese processors.
The Dairy Crisis meeting in Charm, attracted both Amish and English farmers from Holmes County and neighboring Wayne County, with herd sizes ranging from 20 cows to 500. The crowd numbered over 400—judging by the capacity of two wagonloads of Amish Church benches, which were lined up in the second-floor storage area that had been cleared for the event at Keim Lumber on Sept. 28.
The local radio station had provided free advertising. Plus, they taped the meeting and aired five-minute broadcasts throughout the next day.
A survey was distributed and filled out by over half of the attending producers. The results were interesting, and they were tallied to give legislators more information.
For example, 150 of the roughly 210 producers who responded said they support a 'supply management' program; 128 did not feel their voice was being adequately represented at the state or federal levels; more than 200 said they were concerned about the safety of the U.S. food supply given the importation of dairy products, including milk protein concentrates, from unknown origins; 190 said they did not understand the milk pricing system as it pertains to their local area; 190 said they did not consider the Chicago Mercantile Exchange—which trades less than 1 percent of the U.S. cheese production—to be a fair pricing system; 185 believe there is a need for an immediate, thorough Congressional investigation of the dairy industry; 189 said they did not think the milk cooperatives are acting in producers' best interests; 178 said they would appreciate having a dairy conference like this every six months; 115 said they would support having a massive producer/consumer rally in Washington, D.C.
Of the respondents, 132 said they were not current in their accounts payable, and of those, more than half were between 60 and 120 days out on their payables.
The survey question that got to the heart of the matter—and the answer that will undoubtedly stand out to the officials who attended the meeting—was: "If the price of milk you receive does not increase quickly, do you see yourself staying in business?" More than half of the respondents to this question (138 out of 210) said: "No." Only 50 answered: "Yes." The rest were unsure.
Shaver and Weaver report the feedback after the meeting has been "overwhelmingly positive." Of the more than 400 who attended, a group of 15 volunteers will "keep the ball rolling" with follow-up meetings to be facilitated for communication with the staff of their Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Zack Space.
All told, the officials represented at the meeting were Glenn Enslen and Trish McCullough from U.S. Representative Zack Space's office, Jeanne Wilson from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown's office, State Senator Robert Gibbs, Ohio House Representative David Hall, and all three Holmes County commissioners—Robert Ault, Ray Eyler, and Joe Miller. Notably absent, although invited, was the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
(Editor's note: this is the first of a two-part series on the dairy crisis and the meeting held recently in Charm. Next week's edition of The Bargain Hunter will continue with more on the meeting and issues brought before elected officials about the ongoing crisis.)