Michigan dairy farm will no longer milk cows after this year

Nov 16, 2017

The price of milk compared to the price of production factored into the decision

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

A 50-year-old dairy farm in Michigan’s Leelanau County milked its last cows over the weekend.

Producers from Schaub Dairy Farm decided that with the cost of production rising, but the price of milk failing to catch up, it was time to move away from dairy production.

“There was just an excessive amount of milk in the industry in the state of Michigan, which kept the prices low on the farmer’s end,” Eric Risbridger told UpNorthLive.com yesterday.

Michigan’s mailbox milk price in August was $16.06 per hundredweight, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. That number was up from $15.33 per hundredweight in July, but it still isn’t enough for the dairy operation to continue, Risbridger said.

“They said the milk prices were going to come up to maybe $17 per hundredweight,” he told UpNorthLive.com. “But it never made that. It always (seemed) to stay down on the lower end.”

The farm will continue to raise corn and hay, and raise calves that will be sent to auction.

But walking into the barn each day will feel a little bit different, says Risbridger.

“They’re my girls, I raised them and spent every day with them,” he told UpNorthLive.com. “It was sad to see them leave and I just have to have faith that they’re going to be well taken care of at another farm.”

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