Old story most of us have. 1968 my family had a dispersal, we had an auction and liquidated our dairy herd and hay machinery. Milk was actually $8/CWT. We had limited pasture, hay crops and in our spot of PA a short growing season. Some neighbors grew corn for silage but no field corn for 75 miles/ We has some high grade registered breeding stock but not enough to say it was a high-end breeding herd,. One registered Holstein, Brtta, was 11 yrs old and regularly produced 19-21k which for those days was a top-end cow. Our best. She sold for 800$. The avg was but 280$ for 2-12 yr old dairy cows.
Killed me 30 years later milk was 11-13. Had gasoline gone up, artificial breeding fees, Elevation Rag Apple. Could you buy a JD 630 for 2700$ new, 49 HP.
We had 20$ + a few times in the last 8 years, good to see 23. Too high corn and meal prices of ’11-’13 upped the cull cow slaughter rate abd discouraged heifer retention.
Though the USFA #s have not matched up that well, am I right?
But forget the USDA, 8$ corn, shhhmeal (Yiddish for soymeal) over 500 was it HAD to kill off some herd. BTW reminds me Inventory is out today!! I think. Semi was dropped, budget cuts.
Pritchard.
