Bad economic times are forcing Oregon dairy farmers to cull their herds or seek alternatives.
Grants Pass farmer Delmer Brink – who has spent 42 years in the dairy business – is being forced to cull his herd, as falling demand for dairy products and cattle adds up to “the worst year I’ve ever seen.”
Depressed milk prices worldwide, plus an inability to compete with larger operations in the Willamette Valley and in other Western states, have already led two of Brink’s neighbors to reduce their herds and refocus efforts on higher-value crops — Bob Crouse to the east and Cecil Waldron to the west…
Brink said he would sell off his herd if he could, but no one’s buying cows now. He said his only option is to cull — meaning slaughter — them. “Normally, we cull about 30 percent a year when those cows stop giving milk,” he explained. “That’s just the way the dairy business works.”
Read the full story at OregonLive.com.
{biztweet}Oregon dairy{/biztweet}
