Staff Working To Overcome Obstacles
By Brad Rach
Another year, another gloomy dairy report from the USDA. The number of licensed dairy farms in the United States is now officially below 30,000.
Think about that. I, like many of you, can remember back to a time in which some individual states had more dairy farms than our entire country has today.
Heartbreaking as these numbers are, they make what we are doing in our dairy program all the more remarkable. National Farmers is one of the few dairy cooperatives in the country that is growing in membership.
What’s our secret to success? A team of hard-working people, all dedicated to making dairy a successful and profitable business for everyone. It starts with you, our wonderful farmers, who work day in and day out to produce the quality milk today’s markets demand.
Then come the haulers who struggle to find drivers and deal with diesel selling at over $5 nationally, even higher out West. At the other end of the supply chain, processors have had to contend with labor shortages and markets changing between in-home and commercial uses. If that wasn’t enough, one of our buyers was hit by a cyberattack.
Through all these problems, our staff have been the glue that holds everything together. They do the quality visits we all need to keep buyers happy. They take care of complicated accounting and send out your checks. They search out the best markets for your milk.
They arrange for hauling. They develop strong and lasting relations with our buyers. They work behind the scenes in ways I don’t have enough space to tell you about.
Please join me in thanking our haulers, our buyers, and our staff for all they do to keep our dairy program strong and growing.
