Low milk prices and challenging harvest make fall challenging
Jean Caspers-Simmet
Date Modified: 12/10/2009 10:35 AM
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Agri News staff writer
AMES, Iowa -- Low milk prices and a challenging harvest are making it a difficult fall for dairy producers, but many farmers are getting close to finishing harvest and the milk price trend looks more positive for 2010, say two members of the Iowa State Dairy Association Board.
ISDA members recently met at the Iowa State University Dairy Farm in Ames for the group's policy drafting session. Changes agreed to will be voted on by the delegate body at the annual meeting in January.
"Harvest has been very long," said Dave Sullivan of Oelwein. "We went from doing corn silage for two weeks and then we didn't get a whole lot done in October except getting the beans out."
He and his wife, De Ann, have a registered Holsteins herd and raise 150 acres of alfalfa, 300 acres of corn and 50 acres of soybeans
"Yields have been good, but not fantastic," said Sullivan. "Some of the wet corn was 200 bushels. The dry corn was 185 bushels. There were no bin busting yields. We probably chopped our best stuff."
It's been a struggle for dairy producers," Sullivan said.
"We've definitely been eating up some equity this year," he said. "Break-even for us is $14 and we're just getting that now. We're hoping things get better."
There have been no extras this year.
"You fix what you've got and go," Sullivan said.
ISDA president Wayne Dykshorn farms near Ireton with his sons Paul and Alan. They milk 400 cows and grow 650 acres of crops.
"We put up high moisture grain even though it was a little wetter than normal," Dykshorn said. "We've harvested most of our corn."
The corn that didn't get hail or wind damage has been yielding 200 to 240 bushels per acre, Dykshorn said. The test weight is lower than usual. The soybeans received some hail damage, but overall yielded 58 bushels to the acre.
"It's stressful for our dairy farmers," Dykshorn said. "The cost of production is more than what we're receiving for our milk, but dairy farmers are very resilient and they figure out ways to cut costs. For the most part, Iowa dairy farmers are surviving the economic tension and are looking for better prices in the near future."
Dykshorn said he and his sons have watched spending carefully. They didn't buy new implements and laid off two employees.
Dykshorn wishes more farmers had been able to come to this year's policy drafting conference, but realizes many are still in the field.
"I was impressed with the discussion we had, and I'm looking forward to taking these policy changes to the delegate body at our convention," he said.