With wholesale milk prices paid to dairy farmers down about a third since a year ago, we're glad the politicians in Washington have noticed that dairy farmers are hurting.
On Tuesday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said the government needed to offer more federal aid and proposed a way to do just that.
Wholesale milk prices do not reflect the cost of production but are set by the federal government. "I want to get to the bottom of this broken system and find a way to fix it," Gillibrand said.
But farmers sliding into bankruptcy cannot afford to wait for Washington to come up with and adopt a new subsidy program. They're suffering right now.
The current dairy-support system, the Milk Income Loss Contract, was set up as a safety net, but in this recession farmers are not receiving enough to cover their production costs.
As a result, Gillibrand said she will propose raising the rate that determines MILC payments, which would boost dairy farmer income to some extent.
What is needed, of course, is a long-term solution that doesn't have to be adjusted or thrown out every decade with changing agronomic conditions.
The way it has been for too long is that farmers enjoy a few good years and actually show some profit from their milk operation, only to be saddled a short time later with plummeting prices and red ink.
The trouble is that the wheel of change turns slowly in Washington. Gillibrand says a long-term solution may have to wait until the next Farm Bill is written in 2012 because it could take that long to meet with all the stakeholders and decide how to ensure farmers can survive.
Bloomville dairy farmer Barbara Hanselman said any change in the pricing system should take time, to make sure it is done correctly.
But something needs to be done. "We go to work seven days a week, and at the end of two weeks, we get a bill" because income does not meet expenses, she said.
Colleen Head of Hubbardsville wrote to The Daily Star in April to say that her ``small dairy farm of 65 cows is losing $10,000 every month. The 6,500 dairy farms in New York state are losing a minimum of $65 million per month that's not going into the economy. How will this help a nation that's broke?''
The answer is, it won't.
Hearings will be held later this year in New York and Washington on how to address the milk-pricing issue, though preliminary estimates on the cost of changes are about $200 million.
Dairy farmers have to make sure they're heard before the next bill is written.
