Regulations, land prices and economy contribute to loss of farms
Andy and Mary Laudenklos each spend more than 70 hours a week caring for their 600 cows, delivering calves and overseeing the milking at their Carroll County dairy farm — and they're also raising three young sons.The couple and their three-year-old business, East West Farm outside Union Bridge in Carroll County, are struggling. They have doubled the size of their herd and hope to one day procure a robotic milker, all to turn the operation profitable. They are just breaking even now.
Dairy farmers are an increasingly rare breed in Maryland, where such operations are disappearing at a rate twice the national average. Nearly 65 percent of the state's dairy farmers have left the industry in the past 20 years, including 34 operations that shut down last year, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
The decline is driven by the higher cost of land in Maryland, increasing regulations and a global decline in consumption and prices, industry and state officials said. Moreover, dairy operations have shrunk as farmers age and leave the business and too few new farmers replace them.
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3 comments:
Who cares, we buy our milk from the store.
dairy farms can not compete against brand name stores.
wow...the first two comments would be funny if they weren't so darn pathetic.
Where in the Sam Hill do you think the milk at the store comes from?
It saddens me to know that even if the first post was meant to be a joke, so many of our children really do have no clue that it takes FARMERS to produce many of the foods they eat.
God help us all.
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