Vol. 76/No. 41      November 12, 2012

With approximately one out of every five dairy cows in the U.S., California has been this country’s leading dairy state since 1993. The more than 1,600 dairy farms in this state generate $7.6 billion a year in sales.

The farms are almost exclusively family owned. In the past few months, an average of one California dairy farmer per week has been forced into bankruptcy and driven out of business.

Feed prices have reached record highs because of the recent drought and the U.S. government’s 2009 ethanol mandate, which drove up the price of corn.

Dairy farmers say their biggest problem is California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross’ decision to set the state price of Class 4b milk, which includes whey used to make cheese, at $2 per hundredweight below the national average. Class 4b milk is 40 percent of farmers’ sales.

Ross claims she keeps the California 4b price low because of a surplus of milk and a shortage of plant capacity in the state, and the cost of transport to major cheese markets.

“The 4b price is like the minimum wage. It is the bottom line that determines what we are paid,” Wilson said. “Our demand is for Secretary Ross to raise it to a level comparable with other states.”

“Up until a few years ago 4b was 30 or 35 cents below the national average. We could live with that,” Wilson continued. “Two dollars lower makes it impossible to survive.

“Kraft, Hilmar, Leprino and the other big cheese processors in California are the ones that benefit from Karen Ross’ price level,” Wilson said. “The consumers do not. They still pay the same cost.

“We are dairy farmers and we cannot strike,” Wilson explained. “We cannot hold our product from the market. The cows have to be milked and we cannot store milk for extended periods.”

Most of the participants at the rally were dairy farmers from California’s Central Valley. Hay farmers and veterinarians attended and spoke at the event, expressing their solidarity with the dairy farmers’ fight.

“Nine members out of 20 from our campus dairy club are here,” Britlee Koetsier, an agricultural student at Fresno State University, told the Militant. “We had posters and signs up all over the campus.

“I cut class so I could get to Sacramento,” Koetsier continued. “It is especially important for me to come. My family just lost its farm.”  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home