EPHRATA, Pa. - National Farm Family Coalition (NFFC) Dairy Subcommittee members this week shared how the past year’s losses have impacted their farms. Because of the continued stresses on many farms, they called on the Congress and USDA to take action or risk losing family dairy farms.

The coalition conducted a teleconference Tuesday, March 2, and invited members of the media to join.

As Brenda Cochran, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer, described the situation, “farmers have their necks between a pair of scissors” and are at risk of losing everything.

During the hour-long teleconference, dairy farmers shared how they have cut back on expenses, trying to live within the boundaries of their milk checks, but now find themselves in precarious situations.

Paul Rozwadowski, NFFC Dairy Subcommittee chairman and Wisconsin dairy farmer, said that the committee has sent a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for him to intervene on the behalf of dairy farmers regarding the “low milk prices and the pending disaster that is imminent if nothing is done.”

Citing a dairy accountant with a client base reaching across the country, Rozwadowski said farmers are losing their farm credit line. Farmers are either over extended or are pulling down their assets to stay afloat.

“We believe that banks are waiting for cow prices to go up before they drop the ax on these (over-extended) farms,” he said.

Arden Tewksbury, manager of ProAg and a retired Pennsylvania dairy farmer, said that on average a dairy farm lost $270,000 in 2009. He estimates the loss will be around $240,000 for 2010.

Gretchen Maine, a New York dairy farmer, said life has been difficult on the farm. “We have fed the nation for 40 years and we can’t feed ourselves anymore.” She described being just a few steps ahead of cash on delivery with their feed company and how she and her husband were forced to sell a woodlot they had set aside for their retirement. The sacrifice and challenges also include not performing critical animal health care for their animals and putting off needed equipment repair and purchases because the funds were unavailable.

Missouri dairy farmer Stacey McAllister said for the first time since starting his dairy operation, he is “as close to losing it as he has ever been,” and stressed that if it were not for his wife working off the farm, they would not be able to “feed their kids much less their cows.”

Cochran took a wider view of the situation noting that the inability of farmers to pay their bills is having an adverse impact on the local businesses in her area that service the industry. She said that there has been an exodus of dairy farms in her region which has further compounded the issue. Without the farm base, many support industries have closed their stores. Now she must travel further for farm supplies.

NFFC executive committee member and Wisconsin dairy farmer Joel Greeno described the situation like the Titanic, “ripped full of holes and our only life raft is the (U.S.) Department of Justice. Our dairy farmers are the most envied in the world, but our iceberg is low milk prices.”

Loren Lopes, a California dairy farmer, said if the dairy industry can not find a solution to these prices, the banking industry is going to start pulling out of dairy businesses because of is volatility.

Callers also expressed their support of a bill proposed by Sen. Arlen Specter, Senate Bill 1645, which will place a higher price floor on farm milk prices, simplify the class pricing structure to two classes and provide a cost of living wage for farmers. The bill is still in committee and has not had action yet.

Tewksbury noted that the group has looked at other proposals being put forth to resolve the dairy price situation, however were critical because the other solutions did not address a support price for milk.