Page 21 - 111117

Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 21 of 66
have to farm more acres or milk more cows or have access to off-farm income.”
But in a saturated market, where milk prices are low, expanding operations to bring new families into the business can present more challenges for new producers. It can be dif cult to nd processors to accept
their milk as a result of overproduction.
Some dairy farmers-to-be might reconsider.
Entering the profession is “less and less common,” said Carrie Corlett, northeast Iowa and southwest
Wisconsin eld representative with Dairy Farmers of America.
Although states and the federal government offer beginning farmer loans and tax credits, startup costs
still can be prohibitive.
“It’s extremely hard to get into the dairy industry and operate a farm if you’re not working or employed
at a dairy where someone wants to transition you in,” Megan Kregel said. “It’s not only cows. It’s facilities. It’s machinery. There is land. There is a lot of overhead.”
Expanding operations is one of many strategies that farmers use to increase the pro tability of their dairy operations so that beginning farmers can join the business, said Tera Montgomery, University of Wisconsin-Platteville professor of dairy and animal science.
Others might include installing robotic milkers or selling value-added products in addition to milk, such as ice cream and cheese.
Dairy farmers can expand without necessarily having to purchase more land, noted Larry Tranel, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach dairy eld specialist.
“The big question is how many more cows do you need to make a pro t?” he said. “A simple equation might be another 60 or 80 cows to support an additional person. . There tends to be a little economy of scale depending on the system they are getting involved with.”
With more hands in the expanded operation, each sibling can specialize in a different area of the busi- ness, Seevers said.
“We each have different interests,” she said.
For farmers without heirs to succeed them and aspiring farmers without land, ISU Extension offers a matchmaking service called Ag Link.
“We have electronic databases for young people who love to farm,” said David Baker, farm transition specialist with the Beginning Farmer Center.
Megan noted that without an existing operation into which to transition, it would be “nearly impossible” to become an independent dairy owner.
Looking to the future, she admitted there is “always a level of anxiousness and a level of nervousness in being involved in agriculture.”
“We never know what price we are going to receive,” she said. “But overall, it’s exciting. . It’s exciting to see your hard work pay off.”
___
Information from: Telegraph Herald, http://www.thonline.com
Zinke says Democrats holding Interior nominees ‘hostage’ By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says Senate Democrats are holding the depart- ment’s nominees “hostage” to a political agenda that includes opposition to his review of presidentially designated monuments.
In a sharply worded letter to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Zinke said it’s un- fortunate that Democrats have placed holds on four Interior nominees, including the department’s top lawyer and budget chief.
The nominees “have nothing to do with this monument review, yet they have been forced to sit on the sidelines” for months, Zinke wrote Thursday. “As a former Navy SEAL, this is not the type of hostage situ- ation I am accustomed to.”