One reader writes, “I have been watching this trend [of declining small dairies] for my whole career—15 years so far. Strangely enough it drove me to work in the organic dairy industry, not because I necessarily believed organics, but because it provided a living wage for farmers and a way to fight the attrition on dairy farming as a family business. Unfortunately we are now seeing the same market trends in the organic industry too. But the idea of fighting for a living wage, a stable pay-price, is still worthy, whether it’s through a value- added label or fighting to regain value in a traditional one—although I suspect it almost impossible to push back such an established devaluation.”
A recent dairyherd.com poll asked readers to pinpoint their biggest heartaches. When we asked, “What’s keeping you awake at night?” here’s what respondents said:
