Wisconsin’s dairy crisis has only just begun as the state is losing two farms each day, according to Patty Edelburg, vice president of the National Farmers Union. As farm bankruptcies soar, it is possible that nearly 10% of Wisconsin dairy farmers may go out of business in 2019.
“You look at the weather, you look at the crops you can’t get off the field, you look at the bills you can’t pay,” Edelburg, told Yahoo Finance. “Bankruptcies are up. Wisconsin is attributed as the number one bankruptcy in the nation right now when it comes to dairy farmers. That number is up, I think, 24% from last year already. We’re losing two farms a day.” Between 2016 and 2018, Wisconsin lost almost 1,200 dairy farms. The USDA saw a 6.8% decrease in farms across the entire country in 2018.
Wisconsin’s suicide rates have spiked over the last few years and according to the Wisconsin State Journal, experts are attributing many of those deaths to farmers facing economic challenges.
“Farming is such a stressful occupation by itself,” Edelburg said. “When you start adding financial stress on top of it, it’s just going to add more stress. Farmers can’t pay their bills, they have no extra money, they have people honing down their neck looking to pay bills. They’re going to banks and they can’t get loans. They’re literally being denied loans.”
She explained that the USDA farm agency trains its farm loan officers on how to look for warning signs as part of suicide prevention. “The bankers are the first and the forefront to see a lot of these things,” Edelburg said. “They’re delivering the bad news, and these farmers are dealing with it on that level.”
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/nationwide-surge-in-deaths-of-despair-americans-are-committing-suicide-in-record-numbers_06192019
It isn’t just farmers who are committing suicide either. The political structure in place, which is designed to steal from the producer and redistribute wealth to the government is widening the wealth gap, creating more poverty, and generally destroying the mental well being of so many Americans.
For dairy, its not the weather, its the market. People are wising up and rejecting dairy. If its not your mom, its not your milk.
Also, as the country gets more non-European immigrants, the percentage of the population that is lactose intolerant increases.
And 2 Farms are purchased every day. The weak will always file bankruptcy. Most of their problems are mismanagement and lack of farming skills and know how to get the best buck for their products. Just switching to Whole food non GMO food production and no hormone meats will bring windfall profits. Seek out more lucrative markets. I know a lady who switched her 40 acre GA field crop to blue berries, and she is in a picking Co-Op and he is making a fortune. its almost hands free for her to operate as they hire all the workers, and pickers and basically just use her lands to grow the crops and she gets her cut when the blueberries go to market.
Farming is a business like any business, You need to be an experts in your trade or you will be eaten alive and have to file bankruptcy.
Used to have this statement on my business wall. Innovate or evaporate. Get the point?
The last article was on vet suicides. Now it’s farmer suicides. The federal government is a deadly mistress.
The great depression was all about farmer’s, mainly unpaid farm land loans. Now we have extreme climate change, and yes it’s TRUE! This is causing extreme debt and expense for the American farmer. Also the fact that farmer’s are selling out to one another by letting the Chinese buy their farms. A full circle mess. We need more grow local! I believe the support and sales always pan out. My heart goes out to these hard-working farmer’s. America can do a lot more to help.
To have a water well, green pasture, and a milk cow is so elementally simple, the subject of small toys for toddlers, coloring books, cartoons, and Medieval fairytales.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tevye
In the back story, there is never any assumption that you own the means of production, or even basic shelter, outrightly — timeless, universal living needs, which everyone needs to exist.
We have these same discussions about meat, the wheel, fire, water, and lights.
Trump is not helping out small business at all. He is allowing big business to take over over ones or just put them out of business. Using Wisconsin as an example, he says nothing about big ag business taking over farming. CVS putting the mom and pop pharmacies out of business. Walmart and Bestbuy putting the mom and pop tv shops out of business. Why towns are dying for Amazon and Walmart to come into their towns? Homedepot putting the small hardware stores out of business. I could go on and on.
Imagine if th insects mutate and eat the cows gores so they form some cult