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Wayne County Commissioner Brian Smith wakes up well before the crack of dawn to do something he loves - milk cows on his Damascus Township farm.
But that has become more of a pastime this year instead of a successful business as dairy farmers in Wayne County and across the nation cope with awful milk prices.
“It was the biggest industry in Wayne County and we’re losing it,” said Smith in an interview with The Wayne Independent. “Farmers can’t stay in business.”
So after watching neighboring Damascus dairy farms vanish along with several others in the county, Smith decided to do something by literally “taking the voice of the farmer” inside a powerful and politically-connected organization that buys much of the milk here and just about everywhere else in the U.S.
The commissioner recently won a second influential position, this time on a regional board of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a multi-billion dollar milk cooperative that often arouses mixed feelings among the nation’s milk producers. Some believe DFA is a saving grace as the organization buys their milk, yet others believe it is part of the problem by engaging in policies that are not so beneficial to them.
“We don’t get good representation out of DFA,” said Smith, who believes that the cooperative could do much more to boost the market price of milk and help farmers get out of the red. “They want to make money. They want to show a profit margin.”
Milk has hit rock bottom prices this year - and in previous years as well - placing many dairy farmers near bankruptcy, or out of business. Wayne County, once home to 633 dairy farms in 1974, now has 85 - producing roughly one-million gallons of milk annually, a far cry from its heyday.
Of those eight-five, with some teetering on the financial edge, it’s not looking so good unless the milk price swings rapidly upward - and stabilizes.
“Dairy farmers ... are going extinct,” said Ella Chyle, owner of a 300-cow farm in Cold Spring.
“The money just isn’t there,” said Hank Curtis, owner of a 75-cow farm in Steene.
This situation - in a county that was built upon the foundations of its dairy industry - spurred Smith to run for the DFA board seat.
Now elected, he said he will “scream foul” at any DFA policies, or practices, that are detrimental to dairy farmers here. Some negative policies are already in place, he said, and that’s something which baffles him since the cooperative is supposed to represent and care for its members.
“I don’t blame DFA alone for the situation that the farmers are in,” he added. “However, I have access to DFA now, I sell milk to DFA ... and that’s the access I am going to take the voice of the farmer one step higher.”
He said he will also fight for the support of federal legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, that would tie the price of milk to its actual cost of production, rather than its now volatile price on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a commodity exchange based in that city.
“This industry is our food supply. What good is a secure nation when we’re willing to sell our food supply off and import (milk) from other countries,” he said. “We have to make a stand. I’m not afraid to stand up and scream foul.”
Wayne County Commissioner Brian Smith wakes up well before the crack of dawn to do something he loves - milk cows on his Damascus Township farm.
But that has become more of a pastime this year instead of a successful business as dairy farmers in Wayne County and across the nation cope with awful milk prices.
“It was the biggest industry in Wayne County and we’re losing it,” said Smith in an interview with The Wayne Independent. “Farmers can’t stay in business.”
So after watching neighboring Damascus dairy farms vanish along with several others in the county, Smith decided to do something by literally “taking the voice of the farmer” inside a powerful and politically-connected organization that buys much of the milk here and just about everywhere else in the U.S.
The commissioner recently won a second influential position, this time on a regional board of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a multi-billion dollar milk cooperative that often arouses mixed feelings among the nation’s milk producers. Some believe DFA is a saving grace as the organization buys their milk, yet others believe it is part of the problem by engaging in policies that are not so beneficial to them.
“We don’t get good representation out of DFA,” said Smith, who believes that the cooperative could do much more to boost the market price of milk and help farmers get out of the red. “They want to make money. They want to show a profit margin.”
Milk has hit rock bottom prices this year - and in previous years as well - placing many dairy farmers near bankruptcy, or out of business. Wayne County, once home to 633 dairy farms in 1974, now has 85 - producing roughly one-million gallons of milk annually, a far cry from its heyday.
Of those eight-five, with some teetering on the financial edge, it’s not looking so good unless the milk price swings rapidly upward - and stabilizes.
“Dairy farmers ... are going extinct,” said Ella Chyle, owner of a 300-cow farm in Cold Spring.
“The money just isn’t there,” said Hank Curtis, owner of a 75-cow farm in Steene.
This situation - in a county that was built upon the foundations of its dairy industry - spurred Smith to run for the DFA board seat.
Now elected, he said he will “scream foul” at any DFA policies, or practices, that are detrimental to dairy farmers here. Some negative policies are already in place, he said, and that’s something which baffles him since the cooperative is supposed to represent and care for its members.
“I don’t blame DFA alone for the situation that the farmers are in,” he added. “However, I have access to DFA now, I sell milk to DFA ... and that’s the access I am going to take the voice of the farmer one step higher.”
He said he will also fight for the support of federal legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, that would tie the price of milk to its actual cost of production, rather than its now volatile price on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a commodity exchange based in that city.
“This industry is our food supply. What good is a secure nation when we’re willing to sell our food supply off and import (milk) from other countries,” he said. “We have to make a stand. I’m not afraid to stand up and scream foul.”
