Help wanted
Dairy farmers in Butler County are struggling and some have even closed multigeneration operations, but there is one thing consumers can do to help.
“Buy local,” said current Dairy Princess Maggie Rasp.
She said buying milk products in containers from Marburger, Galliker, Turner, Snyder or United will go a long way toward keeping local farmers in the business that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers started on the fertile fields of Western Pennsylvania.
“It's in your blood,” said dairy farmer Ed Thiele. “It's not a job. It's a way of life.”
Thiele is a fifth-generation dairy farmer whose farm was established in Jefferson Township in 1868.
Thiele said part of the reason some dairy farmers are giving up the only livelihood they've ever known is that milk is not as popular as it once was.
“Demand is down and production is up,” he said.
Another reason is that farmers are earning about the same amount of profit from their milk as they did when their fathers farmed.
“Our records go back to 1980,” he said. “Back then, we got $1.15 a gallon and now, it's $1.42. That's not a very big increase.”
Meanwhile, Thiele's expenses have doubled in that time.
During milk's heyday Thiele had several buyers to choose from. Today he thanks his lucky stars for Marburger Dairy in Forward Township, which buys the milk produced by the 40 cows he milks.
“This is the worst I've ever seen,” Thiele said of having one choice in the milk market. “As long as you had quality milk (in the past), someone would take you.”
Dean Foods of Dallas, Texas, recently notified 42 state farms, 16 of them in Western Pennsylvania, that they would stop buying their milk beginning June 1. None of those farms was in Butler County, said Alan Zepp, risk management program manager for the Center for Dairy Excellence in Harrisburg.
Thiele said he has opened a line of credit to keep afloat, as have many farmers.
“I'm paying to play the game right now,” he said. “A farmer is an eternal optimist.”
While he feels the market will turn around, he is aware he may have to cut his losses if things get much worse.“If I got a call tomorrow from Marburger saying we'll no longer take your milk ...” Thiele said.He also laments shifts in the public perception of milk.“Soy or almond milk?” Thiele said. “To me, if it's not from a lactating animal, it's not milk.”Cara Stephenson, chairman of the Butler County Dairy Promotion Team, said the Dean Foods situation brings awareness to the dairy farming industry's issues.“All dairy farmers are struggling right now,” she said.Stephenson works full-time at Oakland Farms in Oakland Township, which her family founded in 1795.Today her grandfather, James Moser, owns the farm and his children and grandchildren help with the operation.“My grandfather is extremely worried,” Stephenson said. “He said these are some of the worst times he has seen in his life and he's 85 years old now.”She said one dairy farm publication received by all farmers includes a suicide hot line that failing farmers can call.“Dairy farming has one of the highest suicide rates just due to it being so bad,” she said.Stephenson said those who do not drink milk but want to help local farmers can buy milk from a local producer and take it to a food bank.“Milk and dairy items are among the most-needed items at food banks because they're perishable,” she said. “But buying local, that's the big thing that supports the local farmers.”She said the dairy industry is working hard to save the farms, and one way is to create milk that can be consumed by those who normally cannot properly digest it.Most of that milk comes from Guernsey cattle, which have an A2 gene that allows milk to be digested by those who normally can't drink milk.Stephenson said there are 25 dairy farms in Butler County that raise and milk from 20 to 25 cows to 250 head of cattle.The farmers, she said, are paying retail prices for equipment, gas, feed and fertilizer while getting $13 per 100 pounds of milk.
She said several dairy farmers in the last five years have either switched to beef cattle or sold out altogether. The latter scenario is difficult, because most farmers grew up in the lifestyle and have no other skills with which to find work.“And even when they sell out, they still have a lot of debt from the farm,” she said.Rasp, Butler County's reigning Dairy Princess, grew up and works full time with 70 dairy cows at Char-Sue Farm in Forward Township.Next year, Char-Sue Farm will turn 80 years old.She said two farms in the county shut down last year because of production costs versus profit.“It's hard to see family farms shutting down,” Rasp said. “These are hardworking people and they have to leave everything they love just because they can't afford it anymore.”Some farmers who have sold go to work at Tractor Supply or Agway. Others keep the farm and switch to livestock, which they are not trained to raise.Rasp, too, advocates buying milk from local sources, and she advises against buying milk from the brands sold in big-box stores.She explained that industrial dairy farms sometimes produce too much milk, and that drives down the price of milk industry-wide.Rasp, 17, said it's the cows that keep her in an unstable industry, and working all day in the barn with her father.“Those animals,” she said. “They are the sweetest little things ever. They rely on me for everything.”Rasp can't imagine getting the sense of satisfaction in an office that she gets out in the barn or on her farm's 88 acres.“To know I can provide for the cows and help them live healthy, happy lives, it means everything to me,” she said.
Local dairy farmers are struggling, but they say consumers can make a real difference by buying milk from a local producer at their neighborhood grocery store.Anyone with a computer can find out exactly where their milk came from at www.whereismymilkfrom.com.There, consumers can enter the code on their milk container and the dairy where it was sourced will appear.The site also has information on finding the code on the container.Maggie Rasp, Butler County’s reigning Dairy Princess, said those without computers can look at the first number on their milk container’s code.If that number is 42, the milk was produced in Pennsylvania.
