Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 6 February 2020
In fight to survive, U.S. dairy farmers look for any tech edge

By IVAN MORENO Rosendale. In November,
PICKETT, Wis. (AP) — At milk prices in Wisconsin rose
Rosendale Dairy, each of to $22.40. Nationwide, they
the 9,000 cows has a mi- reached $21, finally above
crochip implanted in an the $18 price point that Ste-
ear that workers can scan phenson cited as a general
with smartphones for up- benchmark for producers
to-the-minute information turning a profit.
on how the animal is doing With dairy prices outside
— everything from their nu- farmers' control, they have
trition to their health history to focus on controlling
to their productivity. Feed costs. That's where tech-
is calibrated to deliver a nology comes in. A rotary
precise diet and machines milking parlor can handle
handle the milking. In the 10 cows a minute and can
fields, drones gather data sense when an udder is
that helps bump up yields empty so cows aren't over-
for the row crops grown to milked, which can harm
feed the animals. their health. But a robotic
milking system can run
more than $200,000.
"It can be very difficult for
a smaller farm to afford this
In this Dec. 4, 2019, photo cows are milked on a large carousel at the Rosendale Dairy in Pickett,
Wis. technology because you
Associated Press need, you know, a larger
operation to spread those
Technology has played an ent drinks like flavored wa- analysis at the University of expenses across," said Liz
important role in agriculture ter. Two big milk processors, Wisconsin. Binversie, an agriculture
for years but it's become a Dean Foods and Borden Prices fell to $17.30 by the educator in Brown County
life and death matter at Dairy Co., filed for bank- following year, and for for the University of Wiscon-
dairy farms these days, as ruptcy protection in the producers, it's been mostly sin extension office. She
low milk prices have ratch- past three months, undone misery ever since. Nation- said she knows of one farm
eted up pressure on farm- by declining demand and wide, the number of dairy that went out of business
ers to seek every possible also pressured by big com- farms dropped from 40,199 because it couldn't find
efficiency to avoid joining petitors like Walmart, which in 2017 to 37,468 in 2018. enough workers and could
the thousands of opera- opened its own milk pro- In Wisconsin, a state that not afford a robotic milking
tions that have failed. cessing plant in 2018. takes pride in its image system.
"If I use 100 bags of seed And then there are milk as "America's Dairyland," Wisconsin leads the na-
on a field and I change the prices. the toll has been particu- tion in farm bankruptcies
way I distribute the seed, I with 45 Chapter 12 filings
can yield more without a from July 2018 through
single extra dollar of input," June 2019, according to
said Matt Wichman, Rosen- the American Farm Bureau
dale's director of agrono- Federation. Minnesota was
my. Such tools "are becom- not far behind with 31 dur-
ing so economically viable ing that time.
that anybody that's of a Because of debt, the cost
decent scale is adopting of producing milk varies
these," Wichman said. among farms. While some
Technology can mean farmers can break even at
survival, but it involves a a price of $18 per hundred
perilous gamble: Will the pounds, others need $21
machines produce savings because of their debt load.
fast enough to cover the Sometimes the way to sur-
debt they incur? vive is to join forces with
"The last five years have In this Dec. 4, 2019, photo herd specialist Chema Ortiz looks at neighbors.
really been treacherous," stats of a cow on his phone app at Rosendale Dairy in Pickett, Hallett shares some ad-
said Randy Hallett, who has Wis. Associated Press vanced machinery with
85 cows in Casco, Wiscon- a neighboring farmer, like
sin, and has spent $33,000 a combine and planting
on new milking equipment. After hitting a historic high lar severe. Though Califor- equipment. And, fortunate-
He would invest more if his in 2014 of more than $26 nia produces more milk, ly, some technology isn't
operation could afford it. "I per 100 pounds on the Wisconsin has more dairy expensive. Hallett's cows
broke even, mostly." strength of massive buying farms than any other state. carry the same microchips
The dairy industry is caught from China, the bottom fell And more than 1,600 of as Rosendale uses, so he
in a vise between con- out. When China stopped those have gone under in can know from the comfort
sumer trends and compe- its milk-buying spree, there the past three years. of his office the milk weight
tition. Americans are buy- was already oversupply But there are reasons to for each cow and whether
ing less milk as changing from both American and believe the worst might a particular cow had less
tastes steer them to milk European Union produc- be over, said Jim Ostrom, milk that day. The chips
substitutes from soy and al- ers, said Mark Stephenson, a partner at Milk Source, cost about 12 cents per
monds, or to entirely differ- director of dairy policy the company that owns month per cow.q