Ever dream of having a Fairy God Mother grant you three wishes to help your dairy farm push forward? If you had three wishes for the New Year and could put anything into place on your dairy—whether that be developing a new project or magically resolving a problem, what would those three wishes be?
Recently on a Farm Journal Farm County Update webinar, three dairy producers answered that very same question.
Without skipping a beat, California dairy producer Melvin Medeiros with Medeiros Holsteins says he wishes for water and a reliable labor source.
“We need water out west,” he states. “I made the statement years ago. I remember talking to someone and it was actually over the federal milk marketing order coming to California and how that was going to benefit dairy prices in California. I can navigate my way through low milk prices, but I can’t navigate my business without water.”
Medeiros milks 1,600 cows and farms 500 acres alongside his wife and sons in California’s San Joaquin Valley and shares that they have been struggling for the last five years on reliable labor sources.
“Water is the number one wish out west for us,” he says. “And naturally with water comes more availability of feed by lowering those costs, and just a reliable source of labor.”
In Wisconsin, Jordan Mathews, a partner at Rosy-Lane Holsteins, says he too only has two wishes.
“I’d like our milk price to keep up with feed costs,” he says. “That’s just getting really tough to control. It’d be ideal if we could continue that nice comfortable margin.”
Rosy-Lane milks 1,550 cows at one of two locations—the home farm in Watertown, and a newly purchased second farm in Paoli. Earlier this year, Lloyd and Daphne Holterman began the retirement process, and both Mathews and Tim Strobel continue to purchase the business from them, as well as run the day-to-day operations.
Secondly, Mathews wishes for continued health.
“The last two years with this pandemic we’ve been going through hasn’t been fun for everyone. If we can have a staff that does decide to show up every day, we can keep them out of risk. And just keep them to be able to go home to their families every day and then show up, in the morning or night for us that’d be fantastic, I think for everyone,” he says.
Like Mathews, New York dairy farmer Tyler Reynolds comments about the need for an unwavering milk market.
“Stable prices. This year was fantastic on milk price,” Reynolds states. “Do we need to see as high as we did this year every year? No. But we also don’t need to see feed costs do what they did.”
Reynolds says it could have been really bad for the entire dairy industry if milk prices weren’t high to help offset the skyrocketing feed bill.
Reynolds co-owns and operates Reyncrest Farms, alongside his family and milks 1,400 cows and farms 2,700 acres near Buffalo.
“The other thing I really hope is that politicians and lawmakers continue to remember agriculture and realize some of these policies that are put in place how much it affects us,” he says. “And that big agriculture isn’t a bad thing. That’s how we’re going to feed the world in the future.”
To listen to the entire conversation with these three producers talk more about issues and challenges they faced in 2022 and how they’re planning for the year ahead, click on Farm Country Update - Farm Journal
