Re: Question for Bruce on milk marketing???

Posted by Bruce from Can. on December 02, 2015 at 03:45:41 from (74.12.68.198):

In Reply to: Question for Bruce on milk marketing??? posted by JD Seller on December 01, 2015 at 21:54:47:

Hi Jd . First let me tell you the Canadian Wheat Board , was disolved and sold by the last government. It was a single desk seller for all Canadian Wheat, meaning you could only sell to the CWB and the CWB sold the Wheat over the coarse of the year. Most farmers were happy with this system because you didn't have to "market " your self, . This was not for Oats , Barley , soy , or corn. The Wheat board effected the Western grain farmers the most, I am in Ontario , and the end of the CWB had little impact here.
Milk is still marketed through a "Supply Management" system national system. The federal government gave each province the legal right to set up a Milk Marketing Board , in their respective province , in 1965.Each province set up there own rules under national guide lines , and have been working to harmonize these rules for the last fifty years, but that is another story.
Quotas were granted to existing producers based on what they had been shipping. I should add now that there were two markets a farmer could ship into then , Fluid milk (class A ) or industrial (class B) . The fluid price or "table milk " always paid better than the industrial"cheese plant " milk , with different "Quality " standards. We only have one milk Quality now , All milk is "Grade A" and one inspection system.
So now we are paid according to what the end use the milk goes to , Fluid milk being the highest price , and skim milk powder being about the bottom . The farmer is paid out a blend of these prices, based on the farmers milk components, butter fat , protein , other solids (lactose ,etc.) We milk Jersey cows and last month our pay out was $0.92 Cdn per litre , my Holstein friends received $0.75 per liter.
We receive no direct government subsidy , though our market is protected with border tariffs, and our milk is sold into the domestic market only . Therefore our income comes only from the sale of milk within Canadian market.
The United States and Canada have many free trade deals , and just about as many border controls, or tariffs to defend their domestic producers, it is indeed dizzying.
So for a farmer to ship milk in Canada he must hold Quota for the volume they wish to produce , within the province which they reside. In Ontario quota cost $24,000 per kilogram of butter fat. Notice quota is based on butter fat weight not liquid volume .At my farm I need 20 liters of milk to fill one kg of bf quota. with 5.03 % bf milk. If I milked Holstein cows and had 3.75 % bf milk , I would need to ship 25 liters of milk to fill one kg of bf quota.
Each cow will need , on average , one kg of quota . So if you are going to milk 50 cows every day , and your cow get a 60 days dry time , a farmer will need some where around 60 cows , some of these could be replacement heifers, to fill his quota of 50 kg.
My adding Tie stalls to my barn is just a way for me to max out my existing facilities with out spending major dollars. I will need to buy more Quota, several hundred thousand dollars worth, much more than the barn will cost. There are still more tie barns here than free stall parlor set ups, but most new construction is Robot barns.
I can see that as the future unfolds , and we grow our herd and quota in this barn , building a new barn with a Robot will be a natural progression for my son . But that will be at least ten years out, he has to wear the old man out first ! I can think of 20 or more farmers I know that have gone to Robots, the largest milking 250 cows ,not 10 miles from me.
Confused yet ?? Dairy is very complicated , more by government regulation and global trade than just day to day work on the farm.
Be glad to answer any more questions that you might have , to the best of my ability. Bruce

Replies:

Add a Reply! You must be Logged In to Post Name: E-Mail: Subject: Comments: Optional Link URL: Link Title: Optional Image URL: Optional Video Title: Optional Video URL: Advanced Posting Options Email Notification: If you check this box, email will be sent to you whenever someone replies to this message. Your email address must be entered above to receive notification. This notification will be cancelled automatically after 2 weeks.   Advanced Posting Tools   Upload Photo  Select Gallery Photo  Attach Serial No List  Return to Post  Upload Photos/Videos Choose Files from your local computer Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo filesizes should be less than 300K and Videos, less than 2MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.

TRACTOR PARTS	TRACTOR MANUALS

We sell tractor parts!  We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]