Thanks for posting this. Brought back a lot of memories while being interesting to see the state of things now. When I was a kid, we had a pit / automated milkers - 8 or 10 cows on each side of the pit but no washing system. Older brother and I had to disassemble all milkers and wash all by hand every Saturday morning from the time I was 7 'till we left dairy some years later when Dad got a regular job / bought a house in suburbia. I don't miss suburbia as much as the farm.
Same story here; pay retail for everything coming in, and a measly wholesale for everything going out. Used to be a huge area for dairy, now most of the farms are subdivisions and the few that are left are barely making it.
I work for a machine shop in Minnesota, we make a lot of stuff for Delaval. A lot of small odd and ends like stainless steel fittings and some big stuff like big gates. Kind of interesting to actually see it installed in a barn.
milk prices must have been really bad, i guess in ireland we have alot of grass which grows an awful lot of quality forage in a year. it's relatively cheap to grow and well maintained swards last for decades between reseeding. i find it's the larger dairy herd that struggle more than the 50 cow herds. 50 cows high producing cows kept well will feed a family, take that upto say 500 and you need about 8 workers to keep that going and they need to feed their families so you not much better off, plus very few workers are as good at minding stock as people who were born and bred into it, so with more cows you get more headaches.
Cool, thanks for the update. I grew up on a similar sized dairy farm. My dad quit milking when he couldn't hire any reliable help about 15 years ago. He wen't to raising steers and beef cattle.
I'm a dairy farmer in ireland only milking 50 cows which is about average in my area But now everyone one is going dairying as the demand for milk is high. Hope prices stay up if not we be saying good bye to the cows to lol. Great video by the way keep it up :D
Nice video, Thanks for sharing Strange to hear the same story two states away in a different driveway. The cow thing is strange could not wait to get away from them growing up, Then got an angus calf for payment for a welding job and had the damn things since, that was 1989. They are part of the farm but don,t know for how much longer.
I let my dairy heard and farm go in '98 - my mother wanted off the farm, my father was having hip problems, they needed the cash to retire, I knew I couldn't run it on my own, and I didn't think the future looked good (even with a quota system as this was Quebec). I'm 39 now and I really miss the cows, the field work, and the lifestyle. I wish I could go back and do it differently.
I sold mine in September 2018. its now December and I miss them bad. but like you said prices all went up finding any decent help and being alone for 9 years all took a toll on me.
I would really miss my cows, I have been with them my entire life and plan to stay with them, but its hard like you said, so I've been keeping all my steers, been adding to my acres and doing a lot more corn and soybeans. But it's you either expand your herd or you quit the dairy operation, all around me, all the farms have 4,5,6 generations of family and they are struggling to survive. But you can't afford a damn thing whith dairy cows, you put all your time, effort, and money into them. But what people don't understand is that to a farmer, it's not a job, it is the only way of life that we love and would never do anything else.
Not many family diaries left in the US. The few that are have to go big to servive. I have a cousin in Corry,PA that still milks cows. I have another cousin in Clymer,NY that got out of the dairy business and now sells replacement heifers.
yea Wes i know the feeling. I grew up on a Dairy farm and we sold out in '05. I was 10 at that time and I was sad to see them go. The feeling that you have for cows is unbelievable. Like you said the Mega dairies ruined everything for the less than 100 head dairy cattle people. Unless you have a side business, which is how the Amish here in Lancaster PA survive, then you go down the tubes. We lost a ton of money because the milk prices never recovered in the 3 years leading up to us selling out.
Most of the small dairies in Jefferson county NY have gone with a lot of factory /mega dairies taking over ! But there is still a lot in some of the surrounding counties !
Man I just took all but three of my family's beef herd to market yesterday. But here in south central Florida theres a Mega-dairy making life hard for family dairies!
Hey Wes. I was wondering if you still have the dairy equipment around, or you sold it? If you still have it I think it would be cool if you make another video of it for all your new viewers. Thanks
Hey Wes, man it is getting hard here too is Wisconsin. But the cool thing is the entire state is made up of small operations that are fight TOOTH AND NAIL to keep the big guys out.
I missed our cows two we sold out back when our wonderful government had the big herd buyout back in the 1980' s I wish we still milked I enjoyed the fresh milk
Dairy industry is the same in Australia. Doesn't help when the Two biggest grocery Stores Woolworth's and Coles have been competing with each other with marked down priced milk. Plus the government allowing overseas ownership of some of the largest dairys in the country. We used to have a Dairy and all our neighbours did too but all went out of it. No money in it any more just like u said Wes costs have gone up and takes the profit away. It's the same here. Fuel costs $1.27 a litre discount price. At the bowzer it's $1.34.
I live in Ireland and we milk 180 cows we milk them in about 1 hour but as quotas go in 2015 we will need to increase the heard to about 400 cow. Cool vid
hey were i live we milked 54 cows and we sold out in june of 2008 and i miss it but we sold the milker the vacum pump but you still have a set up what i would is milk 60 and do crops for people we do it where we live and i live in upstate ny we do more crop than anthing and you should milk less and do more crops get havesting jobs more and use the milk check to pay the bills and the crop as your profit i mean thats the way i would do it. thank you
thank you i like see this.and yes cows are....the times you wont to go do something are the days the cows get out are thay brack a water pipe..yes all ez something to do with the cow help..
My brother got out in the spring of 2011. About the same story, just couldn't make any money at it. Plus at 64 milking twice a day 365 takes it's toll on the body.
very interesting.my vows went 2013.how did u survive 2009. im retired just sell some hay.organic does fair up here n east ny.some amish up here now too.love ur videos
Hey Wes just wondering would you ever consider milking cows again if the price went up good again.also if the deer pissed off would you grow crop like corn an soybeans again?
Between the drought and the mega dairys they have killed most of the farming in Eastern New Mexico. It is painful to go visit relatives and see nothing but brown fields. My aunt had to go onto city water because the well that my mom and her sisters helped hand dig is now dry!
here in ohio, not to far from where i live, is a big mennonite community that keeps growing every year and every year several new dairies go up. i dont know where there getting the money from, but they are nice outfits on about 150-200 acres. grandpa milked cows along time ago and they went before dad bought the farm and dad swore he would never raise livestock again, but a neighbor gave dad a calf many years ago and we've been raising steers ever since.
I saw on youtube where you commented on a mega hay mower that you was going to take dilevery on one this spring is it true are was you just kidding, if so it would cut your haying time a lot i never seen one that big.
I garden on a relatively large scale, but that's obviously not farming.. But I have a question. You say in this vid that you grow hay, corn, and soy. Is there a reason why a farmer like you wouldn't grow, say. kale or tomatoes or quinoa or whatever ... a "people food" crop?
It seems kinda odd to me that your Grandparents bought the farm from your Great Grandparents. I always thought family passed their property down to each subsequent generation.
Milk is to cheap , supermarkets sell it for 1 dollar a litre in australia farmers don't get enough to make a living. And we get bombarded with Chinese vegetables, but they buy ours because it a premium products and tough rules on sprays whereas they still use ddt and it's been banned in australia for a long time
Got out in time 8$ corn kills. you got to sell the corn not buy it. I was going to start up in dairy but when corn hit 7$ i swiched my loan app. with FSA and got angus beef cattle insted and dam dose it pay better then MMPA ever did
De laval and Husquarna you must realy like Sweden? Sorry about being forsed to quit dairy theres something about catle that gives life to a farm? Cant think about being whitout them! Now go get yourself a Volvo and go strait to IKEA! ;-)
Thanks for posting this. Brought back a lot of memories while being interesting to see the state of things now. When I was a kid, we had a pit / automated milkers - 8 or 10 cows on each side of the pit but no washing system. Older brother and I had to disassemble all milkers and wash all by hand every Saturday morning from the time I was 7 'till we left dairy some years later when Dad got a regular job / bought a house in suburbia. I don't miss suburbia as much as the farm.
Same story here; pay retail for everything coming in, and a measly wholesale for everything going out. Used to be a huge area for dairy, now most of the farms are subdivisions and the few that are left are barely making it.
I work for a machine shop in Minnesota, we make a lot of stuff for Delaval. A lot of small odd and ends like stainless steel fittings and some big stuff like big gates. Kind of interesting to actually see it installed in a barn.
Thankyou for explaining the situation about why dairies are disappearing. It makes sense for you to go on to forage and regular crops.
milk prices must have been really bad, i guess in ireland we have alot of grass which grows an awful lot of quality forage in a year. it's relatively cheap to grow and well maintained swards last for decades between reseeding. i find it's the larger dairy herd that struggle more than the 50 cow herds. 50 cows high producing cows kept well will feed a family, take that upto say 500 and you need about 8 workers to keep that going and they need to feed their families so you not much better off, plus very few workers are as good at minding stock as people who were born and bred into it, so with more cows you get more headaches.
Its the same in the uk, there is just no money in milk unless you have over 200 cows, all the small farms are gone now :(
Cool, thanks for the update. I grew up on a similar sized dairy farm. My dad quit milking when he couldn't hire any reliable help about 15 years ago. He wen't to raising steers and beef cattle.
I'm a dairy farmer in ireland only milking 50 cows which is about average in my area
But now everyone one is going dairying as the demand for milk is high. Hope prices stay up if not we be saying good bye to the cows to lol. Great video by the way keep it up :D
Nice video, Thanks for sharing Strange to hear the same story two states away in a different driveway. The cow thing is strange could not wait to get away from them growing up, Then got an angus calf for payment for a welding job and had the damn things since, that was 1989. They are part of the farm but don,t know for how much longer.
I let my dairy heard and farm go in '98 - my mother wanted off the farm, my father was having hip problems, they needed the cash to retire, I knew I couldn't run it on my own, and I didn't think the future looked good (even with a quota system as this was Quebec). I'm 39 now and I really miss the cows, the field work, and the lifestyle. I wish I could go back and do it differently.
I sold mine in September 2018. its now December and I miss them bad. but like you said prices all went up finding any decent help and being alone for 9 years all took a toll on me.
Man cool old horse drawn do you still have the wagons
I miss cow's too, I miss cow tipping. Only to the cow that picked on the other cow's. Those were the good old day's.
It seam that in the course of 30 years the corporate farms have put most farmer out of business. :(
I would really miss my cows, I have been with them my entire life and plan to stay with them, but its hard like you said, so I've been keeping all my steers, been adding to my acres and doing a lot more corn and soybeans. But it's you either expand your herd or you quit the dairy operation, all around me, all the farms have 4,5,6 generations of family and they are struggling to survive. But you can't afford a damn thing whith dairy cows, you put all your time, effort, and money into them. But what people don't understand is that to a farmer, it's not a job, it is the only way of life that we love and would never do anything else.
Cows r always working on stuff,but they never fix anything,There good that way!!
Not many family diaries left in the US. The few that are have to go big to servive. I have a cousin in Corry,PA that still milks cows. I have another cousin in Clymer,NY that got out of the dairy business and now sells replacement heifers.
yea Wes i know the feeling. I grew up on a Dairy farm and we sold out in '05. I was 10 at that time and I was sad to see them go. The feeling that you have for cows is unbelievable. Like you said the Mega dairies ruined everything for the less than 100 head dairy cattle people. Unless you have a side business, which is how the Amish here in Lancaster PA survive, then you go down the tubes. We lost a ton of money because the milk prices never recovered in the 3 years leading up to us selling out.
April 9 1862 when a not so civil war was going on my first submarine was USS Robert E Lee SSBN-601
Most of the small dairies in Jefferson county NY have gone with a lot of factory
/mega dairies taking over ! But there is still a lot in some of the surrounding counties !
Man I just took all but three of my family's beef herd to market yesterday. But here in south central Florida theres a Mega-dairy making life hard for family dairies!
Hey Wes. I was wondering if you still have the dairy equipment around, or you sold it? If you still have it I think it would be cool if you make another video of it for all your new viewers. Thanks
Hey Wes, man it is getting hard here too is Wisconsin. But the cool thing is the entire state is made up of small operations that are fight TOOTH AND NAIL to keep the big guys out.
I missed our cows two we sold out back when our wonderful government had the big herd buyout back in the 1980' s I wish we still milked I enjoyed the fresh milk
Dairy industry is the same in Australia. Doesn't help when the Two biggest grocery Stores Woolworth's and Coles have been competing with each other with marked down priced milk. Plus the government allowing overseas ownership of some of the largest dairys in the country. We used to have a Dairy and all our neighbours did too but all went out of it. No money in it any more just like u said Wes costs have gone up and takes the profit away. It's the same here. Fuel costs $1.27 a litre discount price. At the bowzer it's $1.34.
Cool Wes i dont think iv ever seen that old barn builing in any of your videos b4
Great stuff, love these walk around videos!
I live in Ireland and we milk 180 cows we milk them in about 1 hour but as quotas go in 2015 we will need to increase the heard to about 400 cow. Cool vid
Your dairy barn is a lot like our old dairy, a big mix of delaval and surge
hey were i live we milked 54 cows and we sold out in june of 2008 and i miss it but we sold the milker the vacum pump but you still have a set up what i would is milk 60 and do crops for people we do it where we live and i live in upstate ny we do more crop than anthing and you should milk less and do more crops get havesting jobs more and use the milk check to pay the bills and the crop as your profit i mean thats the way i would do it. thank you
thank you i like see this.and yes cows are....the times you wont to go do something are the days the cows get out are thay brack a water pipe..yes all ez something to do with the cow help..
My brother got out in the spring of 2011. About the same story, just couldn't make any money at it. Plus at 64 milking twice a day 365 takes it's toll on the body.
Did any of your cows go onto another dairy or ?
Could you do another video of the dairy barn? It seems like a good barn still.
pretty cool learning about your farming history
We sold our cows a couple years ago. Same story. Central PA
very interesting.my vows went 2013.how did u survive 2009. im retired just sell some hay.organic does fair up here n east ny.some amish up here now too.love ur videos
he got out at the right time. There's just no damn money in cold climate dairy farming.
Its hard to be a cow farmer 😞 we milk 80 cows in denmark. Its hard to stay alive 😞
Hey Wes just wondering would you ever consider milking cows again if the price went up good again.also if the deer pissed off would you grow crop like corn an soybeans again?
Between the drought and the mega dairys they have killed most of the farming in Eastern New Mexico. It is painful to go visit relatives and see nothing but brown fields. My aunt had to go onto city water because the well that my mom and her sisters helped hand dig is now dry!
Milk tank would make one hell of a hot tub Wes..
Typicall how long does it take to milk a cow?
here in ohio, not to far from where i live, is a big mennonite community that keeps growing every year and every year several new dairies go up. i dont know where there getting the money from, but they are nice outfits on about 150-200 acres. grandpa milked cows along time ago and they went before dad bought the farm and dad swore he would never raise livestock again, but a neighbor gave dad a calf many years ago and we've been raising steers ever since.
same thing happened to pork producers and beef producers. its hard to compete with corporate farms.
You've mentioned Lancaster Co. in a few of your video's. I'd be interested to hear your opinion of "The Amish Mafia". Keep up the great video's!!
I saw on youtube where you commented on a mega hay mower that you was going to take dilevery on one this spring is it true are was you just kidding, if so it would cut your haying time a lot i never seen one that big.
Can you make a vid about the silo's i am from the neterlands and we drive it on a heap en put some plastick over i
Are those jamesway lever stalls? Always wanted them when we were in a stall barn.
i miss the Cows too..
thats sad :(
Ya
can you do a video on the old 4000 series john deere that was hooked up to the auger
I miss the cows and hogs they are like pets
interesting vid Wes do you hav any livestock on the farm now?
hey will you do a video on the 4430 and 5020
Looks Like the 7410 needs some new rubber
here in the netherlands ist te same you neet to milk 200/300 cows to survive
I plan to go in the opposite of 3000 cows.... to a few cows instead... I miss cows myself Wes.... the girls grow on you....
I miss the cow to
well in my garden i do lol!!!!
but on a lighter note its not the kind of farming i want to do thats all
Not always, my family has always traded and sold to eachother..
miss ours too Tim.
That is Tim's '48 Jeep CJ2A
From Norway. Same situasjon her no money in cows
I garden on a relatively large scale, but that's obviously not farming.. But I have a question. You say in this vid that you grow hay, corn, and soy. Is there a reason why a farmer like you wouldn't grow, say. kale or tomatoes or quinoa or whatever ... a "people food" crop?
ya dairy in ireland has only about 200 cows each avrege ..
It seems kinda odd to me that your Grandparents bought the farm from your Great Grandparents. I always thought family passed their property down to each subsequent generation.
You should get back into it if the price starts going up
good job!
GOOD VIDIEO THANKS
i wanna see you climb it
Milk is to cheap , supermarkets sell it for 1 dollar a litre in australia farmers don't get enough to make a living. And we get bombarded with Chinese vegetables, but they buy ours because it a premium products and tough rules on sprays whereas they still use ddt and it's been banned in australia for a long time
good vid wes!
They say 3 or 4 dairies a week go out of business in the uk
you should go into raising steers
There is no milk quota in the states unlike Canada I think cause in Canada we have it
Got out in time 8$ corn kills. you got to sell the corn not buy it. I was going to start up in dairy but when corn hit 7$ i swiched my loan app. with FSA and got angus beef cattle insted and dam dose it pay better then MMPA ever did
what is that at 0:45 is it the model t i just saw geadlights and a steering wheel
should go into beef
we sold out our cows in aprial 2011 and you do miss them but just like you said theres no money in it
to bad you couldnt sell off the equipment to another farm in the area, sounds like your unhappy about the way things are going on the farm
De laval and Husquarna you must realy like Sweden? Sorry about being forsed to quit dairy theres something about catle that gives life to a farm? Cant think about being whitout them! Now go get yourself a Volvo and go strait to IKEA! ;-)
did you still have that Oliver?
have ye any stock now atall
no milk quota where u are?
so is it bad if we have 300 head but we make our own feed
you should milk again
let me know what size of tires you need I bet I have some
You guys put Milkers on the hard way!!!