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Part 2 of Dairy Story
- 1. with Spruce Eden Farm to create the East River Dairy Farm. The East River Dairy Farm milks 1,000 cows as a collective effort of the Angell, Forbes, Under- wood and Young families; how- ever, Forbes used to primarily be a cattle farmer similar to White. Forbes says 12 to 16 percent of income for farmers comes from selling cattle for slaughter. Forbes said in his experience, dairy farming is much more profitable. New York is a big milk-pro- ducing state, the soil and climate are good for this type of agricul- ture, he explained. While Forbes has a much larg- er farm than White, he under- stands the uncertainty of each year with dairy farming and how profits vary greatly each year. Our farm has been able to have a good year so far despite the index price of milk, Forbes said. According to the state Depart- mentofAgricultureandMarkets, the early April 2015 index price of milk per 100 pounds about nine gallons is $18.12 for the state. A dairy farmers profit is primarily based on this index price, as well as the production per cow. This figure shows a recent decline in comparison to the record high index price of $24.42 seen for February 2014. Given these fluctuations in prices, dairy farmers are accus- tomed to the inconsistency and have to budget effectively to stay in business. In organic farming, significant price swings are uncommon, and therefore there is a higher chance of profit, one farmer said. Organic dairy farms, like Twin Oaks Dairy Farm in Truxton owned by Kathie Arnold and her son Kirk, have a cushion against price fluctuations faced by many other farms. This is because or- ganic farms do not follow the same pricing system. Organic farming has a base price for their milk along with incentives for quality parame- ters, and high butter fat content, Arnold said. Dairy farming is unknown month to month, but organic farmers know what they will be paid and it usually will go up as the year progresses. Jim Gosier, an attorney and spokesman for Byrne Dairy, a nationwide brand based in the Syracuse area, said his com- pany has experience both with conventional dairy farms and organic farms. Byrne Dairy works with 270 dairy farms nationwide, along with various supermar- kets and other vendors. While Byrne buys its dairy products from farms all over the nation, Cortland County farms do a substantial amount of business with Byrne. We have great relationships with Cortland County farmers, Gosier said. Our convenience store in Cortland has been there for so many years. Along with milk, Byrne Dairy is a major producer of yogurt for various companies and under its own brand. Byrne opened a 40,000-square-foot yogurt plant in Cortlandville in June of 2014. Janice Degni, dairy and field crops team leader of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cortland County, said yogurt has created a larger demand for milk over the years. Yogurt is good for dairy farmers because it gives them a place to sell their product and has encouraged farmers to pro- duce more lately, Degni said. According to the USDAs 2012 census of agriculture, New York is the top yogurt producing state, and it is New Yorks No. 1 dairy product sold. Along with this, New York has seen an increase in the amount of cows on farms to 616,000 heads for February 2015 compared to 610,000 from Feb- ruary 2013, according to recent USDA statistics. With the amount of production New York has for dairy agricul- ture, it is surprising to see Cort- land Countys number of farms decrease in recent years. Even though the number of farms in the county dropped from 587 in 2007 to 518 in 2012, those farms grew in size over the same time frame, according to recent statis- tics from the USDA. Degni said the decrease in the number of Cortland County farms is due mainly to economic factors. A lot of farms close because of economic factors. They have no control over margins between price and they have no control over what they get paid, so they are forced out of business for fi- nancial reasons, Degni said. continued from page 1 Joe McIntyre/staff photographer Truxton dairy farmer Kathie Arnold brings hay to one of her dairy cows March 12. BRIGGS