Harmony, Minn., farmer testifies at competition workshop
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 12/23/2010 9:46 AM
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The morning of Dec. 8, Eunice Biel was in Washington preparing to testify in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Jefferson Auditorium.
Biel was chosen from a pool of National Farmers Union applicants to sit on a panel at the joint Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture workshop, "Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy: Margins." It was the last of five workshops.
That night, after catching an early flight home, she was in the barn helping to finish chores.
It was like being in two different worlds, Biel said Friday. One suits and heels, the other winter coats and barn boots.
She and her husband, Robert, and their son and daughter-in-law, Kevin and Kelly, milk about 150 cows near Harmony.
Biel went into the hearing unsure of what she was going to say. She had been told to talk about her family's dairy operation.
She did her homework and talked to other dairy producers. She had a list of questions she wanted to ask. In the meantime, Biel heard the milk futures for the first quarter of 2011 went down to a new low of $13.41.
It hit her hard. Her discouragement guided her as she spoke. She was blunt because she is concerned about the future of her family's and her neighbors' dairy farms.
It's tough as a dairy farmer to pay expenses, Biel said as she sat on the five-member panel that was onstage for an hour. Dairy farmers must take care of their animals. They can't skimp on feed or animal care. They have to haul manure and maintain their barns. They have to care for the calves.
There were a few times in 2009 when the feed bill was higher than the milk check, Biel said.
Dairy farmers are still struggling to recover from the devastating low prices of 2009, she said, and another train wreck is coming.
The lows in milk prices are closer together and the highs further apart, she said. The volatility is hard to plan around.
If the milk price had kept up with parity, which was taken away in 1981, dairy producers would have a better price, Biel said, even though she was told to avoid talking about the past.
She also spoke about the need to deal with milk protein concentrate. The issue has been around for years and no one wants to tackle it, she said. It's a ghost that impacts the market, but is never factored in, Biel said.
She was asked her opinion on the several dairy plans floating around. She spoke in favor of a producer-driven program. Supply management is essential for any dairy plan to be successful, Biel said.
Reading her scribbled notes, she said consumers think that all the money they pay for fluid milk goes to dairy farmers. In 2009, the farmers share of what consumers spent dropped to 26 percent, she said. Now, the percentage is around 30 percent.
Biel wants to know who's making the profits in the fluid milk supply chain. Why the disconnect between retail prices and farm gate prices?
As she left, people she didn't know reached out to her and told her she'd done a good job.
She doesn't know if what she said will make a difference or if the Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture will make changes based on what they heard at the competition workshops, but she's thankful they held the hearings.
"I'm hopeful, but I don't know what's going to happen," she said.