Experienced Dairy Farmers, Not CEOS, Should Oversee Milk Sales

Editor:

I am an advertiser and have been a reader of Lancaster Farming for more than 25 years.

An article by Charlene Shupp Espenshade in the Oct. 17 issue (“Farming Looks Easy — From a Distance”) was both interesting and thought provoking. My family has been in the livestock hauling business for 60 years, since 1949. We were also dairymen, but I sold my cows in 1979. If I remember correctly I received $12.50 to $13 per hundred for my milk.

Here it is 30 years later, and you are receiving the same price or less.

I used to ship my milk to Dairymen’s League and sat through many meetings and listened to the same speeches, the same promises and the same proposed solutions.

I do not have an answer, just a comment. Until sales of milk and milk products are handled by dairy farmers, not CEOs, not elected officials, there will be no change!

I know first-hand how hard farming is, but until our older, “semi-retired” generation of dairymen, who have been through the hard times, oversee sales and have real control you will continue to be fed a line. Please do not wait for the government to help — there is not enough money to put into the lobbyists!

— Tom Mulvaney
Denver, Pa.