pitfalls of small farming.

How the  New Year is Shaping Up, Farm-wise

     We are heading into a new year and again I must re-evaluate where I stand with this farm thing. An early onset of bitter cold temperatures has already put stress on my hay supplies , and has forced me to take measures to extend my hay by being ultra conservative now knowing we still have a lot of time before we see a  winter thaw and a return to spring like temperatures.

      Forced with the prospect of buying hay to carry over the cattle into spring time, or possibly selling off the herd or reducing them to where I can make it through the winter with what hay reserves I have is one of the possibilities I am looking at now. I have went through approximately half my hay reserves and I am just reaching a point where I still have at least 2 more months to go at the minimum, having fed half my hay reserve in the first month and half of winter. 

      Selling the herd off or part of it off is hardly ever an option one wants to employ in the wintertime, as the price always drops as people tend to take advantage of you as they know the situation you are in. But with the recent influx of oil field work, it has simultaneously led to a drop in available hay to buy. This may be due to the amount of local farmers not farming anymore due to retirement from oil filed earnings, or there may be other factors at work.  This has led to historically high prices as speculators tend to cling to their hay to take advantage of the high prices , making keeping livestock a costly adventure. So you are forced to buy high priced hay or sell your cattle at below market prices. When in the end all I really want to do is to weather this storm and keep what I have for another year and not lose my ass. Not an easy feat but one a lot of farmers have to face over the years and one we may have to face more often with global warming upon us.

     If you are a meat eater and enjoy your red meat and there is nothing like grass fed organic beef to taste, then this affects you the consumer also. I am just one farmer of many who due to deficient hay harvest and an extra-long winter due to global warming are going through the same scenario to varying degrees. This results in a reduction of cattle on feed and higher profits for those who have plenty of feed and in the end higher prices for the hamburger in your store.  Spot shortages in beef supply will not occur as meat packers rush to buy over  beef released to market early as hay dwindles but this reduction in numbers of cattle on feed will result in higher prices come the summer months when less cattle will be available. The prices will result in savings at first followed by continual gouging later in the year.

     Sadly to say, this may be the end result of farming in the future as we continually will be assaulted by fluctuations in weather patterns. And just like gasoline prices as a commodity goes up , it rarely reaches that low point you were comfortable with once, as the price goes lower again after the event that caused it. It seems as if the mega farms are the ones that are able to weather these storms as more and smaller farmers, ones making a million or less are being drove out of business. If an analogy is used it would be like taking cattle to slaughter. My small herd is nothing compared to some but when you take a collection of small farmers like me and collectively organize their efforts, the impact on our agricultural market is enough to keep the mega farms in check and to provide the consumer with quality beef or agricultural products being whatever it is at a reasonable price considering the laws of supply and demand. Eliminate the small guy and you will soon see rampant price fixing among the big boys of agriculture.

     After we eliminate the small farmer , then the mega farms will not be able to weather the spot shortages and will in effect be able to price fix their profits at the expense of the consumer. This not only applies to cattle, but to everything we grow or raise to eat. It is the small farmer that has allowed us to eat rather inexpensively here in the United States for years. the effect of the small farmer can be seen in the price of corn as one year it will be high and farmers basically unregulated and seeing a chance at making money will overplant corn the next year hoping for a windfall of profits based on this years prices . But all the rest of the small farmers out there faced with the same situation, are doing the same and then after this year’s corn harvest came in we found that overplanting led to a surplus of corn and soon the price falls again. Without small farmers this price would go up and stay there.

      But when in my case the price of hay is beyond what I will get in return , then I have to seriously consider whether it as all worth the hassle and the responsibility of trying to keep going in this venture. I am at that point. Last winter or earlier this year I was faced with a hay shortage due to drought conditions the year before. I was forced to buy hay, but was lucky enough to secure it from a local farmer who had plenty and was reasonable. I made all I could this year here on the farm and still I am being hit with the onset of an early winter and being forced to buy hay this winter season. I had approximately forty bales going into the winter season, and at best I can expect is 3 calves being born this year from the herd of six. These three calves at the end of the year may yield me 700 per calf, or 2100 dollars, if I decided to sell them. If I sold the hay I would feed all my cattle I would have 2000 dollars, just 100 short of what I expect to make off the cattle. With selling the hay, I have to do half the work to make it happen. But then again I do like seeing my cows pasturing on the farm and they are utilizing the farms resources I would not be able to as efficiently as I do with them.

      One foot on a banana peel and the other in the grave comes to mind when I think of the economics of the cattle industry. If I keep them I will have to pay out of pocket, and if let them go will take a hit on how profitable they could be. I and a lot of other small farmers like me are facing the same dilemma. Should I let them go or should they stay? What the answer is will depend on how the next couple of months will go. I hope for an early spring.