Financial losses keep mounting

Numbers printed in the latest Dairy Farm Operating Trends by accounting firm Moore, Stephens, Wurth, Frazer, and Torbet simply put in red and white what dairy producers nationwide have known for some time . . . it's a financial storm out there. In the first six months of 2009, dairy producers throughout California, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, and the Texas Panhandle lost between $429 and $677 per cow. New Mexico was on the low end of the losses while Idaho and parts of California were in the $600 range.

When looking at profits and losses per hundredweight basis (cwt) or the cost to produce roughly 11.6 gallons of milk . . . west coast farms were losing between $4.37 and $6.43 for every 100 pounds leaving the farm. Specific losses were $4.37 in Arizona; $4.38 in New Mexico; $4.73 in Southern California; $5.06 in the Texas Panhandle; $5.38 in Kern County, California; $6.03 in California's San Joaquin Valley; and $6.43 in Idaho. The data used to compile this information is based on herds with a combined production of over 1.7 billion pounds and more than 164,000 head of mature cows.