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GA Milk Weekly Enews - November 16,
2018
Your weekly update for the Georgia Dairy Industry
Brought to you by the Georgia Milk Producers, Inc.
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Happy Thanksgiving to Your Dairy Farm Family
No GMP E-news next week, will return Friday, Nov. 30th
I am truly Thankful for you, the dairy farmer - for the food you provide, your dedication to producing a nutritional and safe product, and the support you have provided GA Milk and myself over the years. It has been an extremely sad and trying year for our state's dairy industry. We have experienced loss of market, loss of farm pay prices, loss of many dairy farms, loss of the Braselton plant, extreme humidity, and recently a hurricane. While I have not fully experienced the stress and hardships each one of you have gone through this year, I do hurt for our industry and the many families I have come to cherish over the years.
Our industry will need to work together and face challenges head on to survive and thrive. As we work to make changes and to build a better future, I ask that everyone keep an open mind and listen to each other. Georgia has a very diverse dairy industry and each farm has different needs. However, there are many things we can work on together and our organization is here to make that happen. There are not many states that have an organization like ours and I hope that you utilize us as the SE dairy industry moves forward.
Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours. It's truly an honor to serve Georgia's dairy farm families.
Farrah Newberry
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UGA Hosting Mastitis Workshops on Nov. 20th and 27th
The University of Georgia Extension Service will hold two more mastitis workshops this month in Newnan and Blackshear. The details are as follows (the schedule will be the same for all meetings):
November 20 Coweta Co. Extension Office, Don Morris Meeting Room 255 Pine Rd., Newnan
November 27 Pierce Co. Extension Office, 705 College Ave, Blackshear
11:00 am Introduction
11:15 am Best Milking Practices and the NMC 10-point Mastitis Plan, Dr. Valerie Ryman, Extension
Dairy Specialist, ADS-Athens, UGA
12:00 pm Lunch
12:30 pm The Right Drugs for the Mastitis Bugs, Dr. Emmanuel Rollin, Clinical Assistant Professor,
CVM - Athens, UGA
1:15 pm How Diet Affects Milk Components and Quality, Dr. John Bernard, Professor,
ADS-Tifton, UGA
2:00 pm Questions and answers
Door prizes will be awarded and lunch will be provided. Special thanks to Georgia Milk Producers, AgSouth Farm Credit and Coweta Co. Farm Bureau for sponsoring the meetings. Please register with the Extension office by noon the day before the meeting to reserve your meal, the numbers for county offices are:
Coweta Co.: 770-254-2620 and Pierce Co.: 912-449-2034
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Dairy farm hit hard by severe weather |
Georgia Dairy Hit by Tornado, Sets 127 Cows Loose
Preparing for Hurricane Michael was easy for Benjamin Newberry, owner of Donacin Dairy Farm, but one can never really prepare for a tornado to hit your operation.
When severe weather rolled into Lizella, Georgia, Wednesday night (Nov. 7), the Newberry family had no idea that a tornado would hit the 47-year-old operation. Stripping fence lines and damaging commodity barns, the storm set 127 animals loose in the middle of the night but injured none.
Newberry, who did not know the storm had hit his facility, was shocked by the work that needed to be done. His first priority when he arrived at the farm was to repair the fence and contain the cattle.
"It's unnerving, you know, when you get out there and you see what all you've got to do and you can't see in the dark," Newberry told
13WMAZ News. "You think about how in the world are you going to put these barns back with what little bit you have from insurance. It's just stressful, it's hard and you get overwhelmed."
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By John Geuss, MilkPrice Blog
October Class and Component Prices were announced October 31. Prices were mixed resulting in a 3.5% drop in the Class III price to $15.53/cwt. That is a pretty normal price based on current history. This post will review the "new normal" for milk and component pricing. Prices have been fairly consistent for over three years.
A quick review of Class III milk prices (Chart II) shows that for over three years the price has been in a fairly tight range from about $13/cwt. to $17/cwt. Currently, at $15.53/cwt. the price is near the midpoint of the range. Compared to Class III price movements in the past, this is a very long time for prices to be in such a tight range. Considering inflationary adjustments, the price of Class III milk is at a low and is staying there for a longer time than ever before.
Read more
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I prefer to strive, not just survive
Let's open our minds to better ways to market our milk.
We all know the last few years have been tough on us as dairy farmers. Every dairy, in every region, is sure they have had the hardest time of anyone. Bad pricing, poor weather, labor issues, and the list goes on and on. We are all in the same boat and could not row in tandem if our lives depended on it . . . and yet our farm lives do.
We need to be searching for the common ground we can work on. The cooperatives are farmer owned; they should work for us, not us for them. If we cannot come together and set direction for our co-ops, then just a few board members or the co-op management will do what they think is best.
Let's discuss some of the issues at hand:
- Supply management. Like it or not, it needs to be discussed. If everyone reduced their overall production shipped by a few percent but their total milk check grew substantially, life would have to be better.
- Intra-marketing agencies. All cross-country hauling needs to be minimized.
- Commingling milk. Producers from two different cooperatives can ride on the same truck.
- Quality. Should standards be further tightened?
- Over order premiums. Can't co-ops work together to reestablish them?
- Manufacturing facilities. The Southeast region will probably have some built to keep cream from going so far after the rest is bottled. Other areas of the country must develop markets to more effectively move milk.
- New product and new markets. Co-ops could consider letting members sell small amounts of milk to niche manufacturers without making the dairy buy back their own milk from the co-op. A small manufacturer may be the one to develop a previously untapped market for a dairy product. I understand cooperatives need a known quantity every pickup, but they should allow a dairy or business to buy small amounts to develop new markets for us.
Consider your neighbors' opinions. Mentally walk in their shoes for a moment before you speak. Don't dismiss their ideas outright; take a bit to consider what they have to say. Give your fellow farmers the chance to change your opinion of their idea.
I think it is better to strive to get more value for the products we sell than to see who can sel it for the lowest value and survive.
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Thanksgiving Dinner Cost Continues to Decline
From American Farm Bureau Federation
American Farm Bureau Federation's 33rd annual price survey of the classic Thanksgiving dinner - including turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all the fixings -- revealed an average cost for a family of 10 was $48.90, less than $5 per person and down less than 1 percent from prior-year levels. Since 2015, the average cost of Thanksgiving dinner has declined steadily and is now at the lowest level since 2010. When adjusting for inflation, the cost of Thanksgiving dinner this year was less than $2 per person and was the most affordable in more than a decade.
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Culver's, the popular fast-food restaurant, and Kroger, the country's second largest supermarket chain, love dairy farmers. That was made clear during the World Dairy Expo seminar, "View from the top: How corporate restaurant and food retail sourcing policies are being developed and the implications to the farmer", Oct. 5 in Madison, Wis.
anelists Mike Brown, director of dairy supply chain at The Kroger Co., and Sarah Hendren, nutrition and quality assurance manager with the Culver Franchising System, LLC, answered questions posed by Angela Anderson, director of customer outreach at the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, about how these businesses go about sourcing dairy products.
Following are the questions posed by Anderson and the answers given by Brown and Hendren.
When it comes to food sourcing guidelines, we are seeing more requirements from customers to farmers about how they farm and raise food. How does your company make sourcing decisions and who is a part of that process?
Kroger: "Dairy is the No. 1 category at Kroger," Brown said. "Our 35 manufacturing plants produce fluid milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream and processed or packaged cheese, with milk and cheese being our biggest categories. We're an ardent supporter of the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management program. All milk and dairy product suppliers that supply our dairy processing plants and grocery assortment are enrolled in and in good standing with this program. We feel our producers are doing a great job, and we make sure our customers know this. We also partner with trade associations like the Innovation Center and National Milk Producers Federation. We find that a collaborative effort between farmer-owners, processors and retailers is the perfect way to get the dairy message across."
Read more
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GA Dairy Classifieds
18 Bred Registered Holstein Heifers. Big heifers 6 Due in November, 5 Due in December, 3 Due in March
50 years in the Dairy business, Top herd in South Carolina. RHA 25,000, Closed Herd, All AI Sired, all AI Bred, and Vaccinated. Contact: Debbie Glenn at 864-376-8582.
Bull Calves WANTED: Competitive pricing with 6 day a week pickup. Brandon Mason Cattle Company 912-632-4490
For HIRE: Southeast DHIA
has a position to fill in the
West Central Georgia area for a
FIELD SERVICE TECHNICIAN.
Responsibilities include data
collection on area dairy farms
during milking time. S
chedule is somewhat flexible
but the hours are non-typical. S
ome travel and out-of-town
work likely.
Applicants should be comfortable
with computers and software and
have good communication and
organizational skills as well as
reliable transportation. Pickup Truck required. I
f interested send a resume to
For Sale:
WW Livestock Systems Hydraulic Head shoot, never used, excellent condition, kept under roof. Listed for $23,041 asking $15,000 or reasonable offer. Call M
For Sale: Custom manure application and Dryhill manure equipment sales.
Contact Edwin @ 478-299-0717 with
Agboys Custom Services LLC -
New 8"x52' lagoon pump with outriggers $24,000 (Pictured right)
For Sale 3000 gallon Surge/Westfalia milk tank and wash system. Three phase condensers. 2002 model. Excellent condition. John B Gay, 478-494-5107
WANTED: DeLaval
Westfalia
Neck Transponders: TN Dairy seeking used Westfalia neck band transponders.
Please contact Bill or Peggy Howell if interested at 423-972-9254 or 423-371-3032.
WANTED: Looking for used pasteurizing and bottling equipment in working condition; Linda and Darrell Rankins, Jr.; 334-745-2357 (best times: mid-day and after 8 p.m.)
For Sale:
Jersey cows, heifers and calves for sale. Registered with AJCA, all ages! Contact Matt Holton at 770-718-8271, call or text. Dawsonville, GA.
FOR HIRE: Custom Silage Harvesting. Late model JD chopper. Will travel. Let me put your quality forage up! Nic Haynes, Muddy H Farms, 678-617-3379.
FOR SALE:
We have a continuous selection of fresh and springing heifers.
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Upcoming Events:
Nov. 20 - UGA Mastitis Workshop, Coweta Co.
Nov. 27 - UGA Mastitis Workshop, Pierce Co.
Dec. 2-4 - Georgia Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, Jekyll Island
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