When do they start marching with pitchforks...

Tractors through BerlinAre you ready to parade your tractor in Washington? German dairy farmers don't care much about D.C., but they plowed into Berlin on Monday to raise a ruckus about their milk checks. They had 700 tractors rolling through downtown, garnering attention and creating a bunch of traffic jams.

Their complaint? They're getting just 20 euro cents per liter for their milk, which works out to about $6.62 per hundredweight. The crowd of protesters, on and off the tractors, was estimated at 6,000. Germany's parliament is considering a tax break for farmers that would cost the national treasury some 525 million euros ($734 million U.S.).

Last week, six farmers camped out Chancellor Angela Merkel's front door and staged a hunger strike. They called it off after five days when Merkel refused to meet with them and they had gotten really, really hungry.

The agricultural situation has gotten so bad in Germany and other parts of the EU, that a lot of politicians are concerned for their jobs. In Germany alone, the dismal milk price could drive one out of every five dairymen out of business.

Call it supply control or call it low milk prices, the dairy business in the U.S. is in a deep funk, and people are looking everywhere for solutions. Lancaster Farming correspondent Steve Taylor covered a meeting in Vermont recently to discuss a radical plan to stabilize milk prices. Their plan would penalize producers who increased year-to-year production. Interesting. You can check Steve's article in our current edition.

What is that thing? Seriously. I want one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ONJfp95y oE