Brittany Nickerson-Thurlow, a partner in Nickerson Cattle Company LLC. in Hardee County, Florida, wishes congress would listen up to the real needs of dairy farmers. The fifth-generation dairy farmer says that from Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program (PMVAP) to immigration reform, there are real missed opportunities for congress to truly understand how to help dairy farms, like hers.
The average size of a U.S. dairy farm has risen over the last two decades to more than 300 cows today.
However, the average size of a Florida dairy farm is much larger, hovering around 1,300 cows. Nickerson Cattle Company ranks above the state average in cow numbers, milking 2,000 head, growing considerably since the family’s debut into the Florida dairy industry.
In the 1960s, 27 cows provided for the Nickerson family. As the family grew, two sons; Nickerson-Thurlow’s father and his brother, made the decision to come back to the farm. Thus, the family decided to purchase two smaller farms with help from their parents in the mid-1980s.
“Those three farms – and their 400 cows – provided for three farm families and a few employees,” Nickerson-Thurlow says.
In 2003, the family decided to build a fourth dairy, Ten Mile Grade Dairy. This brought the milking herd to a total of 5,000 cows – across the entire dairy operation. With the next generation ready to come back to the farm, in 2017 the decision was made to split the four farms into two businesses.
“Today those four farms support six farm families, including my own, along with 36 farm employee families,” Nickerson-Thurlow says.
Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program Shortcomings
PMVAP was meant to make up for revenues lost during the early days of the pandemic because of the change to the federal formula on how milk is priced.
In 2021, when this federal program launched, not all dairies came out as winners. Nickerson-Thurlow says dairies like Ten Mile Grade Dairy came up short on the program’s intended advantages.
Through PMVAP, USDA provided more than $350 million in pandemic assistance payments to dairy farmers who received a lower value due to market abnormalities caused by the pandemic and ensured federal policies. It outlined that those payments would reimburse qualified dairy farmers for 80% of the revenue difference per month based on an annual production of up to 5 million lb. of milk marketed and on fluid milk sales from July through December 2020.
“That sounds like a way to help small, family farmers – but many family farms aren’t that small, and many farms have multiple operations which gave them an edge in payments,” Nickerson-Thurlow states.
When the two brothers, Chris and Joe and their families decided to split off back in 2017, they felt the fair way to do this was by dividing cows equally. This resulted in one family getting three smaller farms and Nickerson-Thurlow’s family owning and operating the larger dairy, Ten Mile Grade Dairy, which was built in 2003.
“My uncle and cousins own three of our original four farms. Because of the rules, they were able to capture up to three times the PMVAP funds I received, each dairy having the same EIN number, despite the fact that my single-family farm produces slightly more milk — and thus lost more money — than their three together,” she reports. “Given the average size and mixed demographics of a Florida dairy business, it’s easy to see how the effort falls short.”
Having the advantage of sitting on Southeast Milk’s board of directors, Nickerson-Thurlow feels well educated on how the PMVAP funds were going to be executed, but she says the hang up in payment timing was on USDA’s end.
“Some producers were wondering what calendar year this money was going to come in and were waiting on funds to help cash flow, but also for tax reporting purposes,” she says. “You know that amount of money can impact very much some of your prepaid expense decisions.”
Nickerson-Thurlow reports that her dairy’s portion was around $100,000, but shares that USDA fell short, as the six-figure payment was only a fourth of the total dollars her dairy lost due to the pandemic.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful, but the expectation of what we were going to be getting was much higher, and it was a disappointment in terms of timing, as well as the inequity of payment distributions,” she shares.
Immigration Reform
Another missed opportunity by legislators, from Nickerson-Thurlow eyes, is immigration reform.
“The biggest challenge isn’t lack of awareness, it is a lack of understanding,” she comments.
Nickerson-Thurlow shares that immigration policy often gets caught up in emotional debates that have nothing to do with farming.
“For example, lower-hanging fruit could be harvested through changes to visa programs that would make a temporary foreign workforce more workable for dairy,” Nickerson-Thurlow says.
Because dairy is a 365-day commitment, the seasonal H2A current program doesn’t work for many dairy producers, like Nickerson-Thurlow.
“Plus, for us to invest in employees by spending the amount of time it takes to bring them up to speed on our protocols and training, we need to re-capture as much return on that investment as possible – which is often challenging - especially if they are not going to be employed very long,” she states.
Evaluating ROIs on everything their dairy does, even with labor, Nickerson-Thurlow says it doesn’t add up in terms of investing time and resources to a nonstop, continuous H2A labor pool.
“It would be so beneficial for us to be able to utilize that program and to be able to depend on a well-educated workforce,” she shares.
Currently, Nickerson-Thurlow’s new hires come from word of mouth, and she says they are currently blessed with a very low turnover rate the last few years. The dairy currently milks in a double-40 swing parlor and the family’s motto is to keep it simple.
“Our whole business model is low input, low output,” she shares. “Everything here is simplistic, so technology isn’t something we are looking to invest in.”
The fifth-generation dairy farmer hopes Congress will listen up, as we prepare for the next Farm Bill.
“Overall, there’s a huge disconnect from the government and legislative level and how that gets down to the field level to actually help farmers,” she notes. “Federal officials need to adapt to changes in how programs are done to make sure the dairy industry, and the communities they serve, continue to thrive.”
