Gilmer Dairy Farm News
WCBI-TV: Milk Goes Down, Farmers Hurt
(the following report was filed by Joey Barnes of WCBI-TV, Columbus, MS, and appears in it's entirety on the station's website.)
View the video segment here.
Will Gilmer begins work at 5:30 every morning. From milking cows to rotating which fields they eat in, the Gilmer Dairy Farm is a busy place.
Last year saw near record highs with record expenses. Now, the price of milk has dropped.
"Once the economy began to go the wrong way several months ago, our export market dried up. So, we were left with too many cows here in our country producing too much milk or more than what our domestic market could stand," explains the west Alabama farmer.
Gilmer says a 40 percent drop in prices, from this time last year, will shut down many dairy farms. The Gilmers are hoping to break even.
Some expenses have dropped, such as electricity, but it hasn't kept up with the price decline.
The Lamar County, Alabama farm has found ways to save money by using manure to fertilize fields, and a wet spring has led to more grass for the cows to graze... cutting down on feed prices.
