Fortunately for 30 more years after this video many family dairies could be successful . After the 90s not many and now almost none . I'm glad I was a part of the good times .
I’m always amazed seeing all the small abandoned dairy barns around my area from late as the 90’s. There was a time a small operation like my family’s dairy farm could make a living on its own
I grew up in the 50s and 60s in Southwestern Ohio next to a holstein dairy farm. I was there as much as I could be from 9 years old. I loved it. Now the land is all subdivided and houses look like cookie cutter products. Makes me sad.
I bet it does make you sad. Am only in my mid late twentys, but I live in northern michigan, just about all through our county/ community, I see lots of old wooden barns of old farms, some still going today not dairy anymore, but wouldn't know that until my dad and uncle told me about it especially my dad, which like he told me once about 10 years ago "20,30 years ago lots of these dairy farmers were getting out of business, cuz kids didn't want to take over, and prices didn't helped". But today some are just beef farms, hay farms, horse farms, but of course some are abandoned a new owner living there but doesn't want to farm. Which in a way helps us out to get hay off of, but reality it's still sad around our nack of the woods. So we just look at its better to get hay off of other old farms then seeing houses on them, or definitely better to see trees growing instead houses, at least trees helps the atmosphere/ earth in general plus trees were there before humans ever were inerways.
I grew up west of Waterloo, Iowa in the 70's and 80's. From about highway US20 north was the edge of the dairy belt. There were creameries in a lot of small towns back then and a lot of my friends parents milked. The creamery in our town closed about 82 and the nearest one about 15 miles away closed around 2005. I can think of only 1 or two families that still milk around my hometown. Milking is a tough life 7 days a week, 365 a year. Sick? Get up and milk. Wanna go somewhere? Be home by 5 PM to milk. Going out tonight? Gotta be in the barn at 5 AM. Wanna go out of town? Vacation? Go away for a weekend? WHO'S GONNA MILK THE DAMN COWS? I have heard stories of guys back in the 90's who were proud they had never missed a milking in 25 years... 25 years of being basically held prisoner on your farm. And even if you want to try and get away how many people can milk a cow anymore? I haven't put on a milker on a cow since about 1993 and I'm 53 years old. This is sad as the livestock industry, moreso than grain farming, helped keep small towns alive.
Every time I go by an abandoned farmstead or see a new subdivision going up where a family farm once was or the nearby almost or completely abandoned ghost towns that were once thriving supported by all the surrounding farms and connected businesses, and see main street with all it’s abandoned store fronts with fading signs I cry. There is nothing in this world I miss more than being on a farm. I miss the long hard days of working the fields, milking, handling hay, feeding the cows, pigs, chickens etc. At the end of the day you could look back and see the fruits of your labors. I wonder how many of the kids who instead of taking over the farms, because they saw greener pastures elsewhere doing other work have lived to regret their choice and wish they could have a do over? When my father married my mother he could have taken over her family dairy, my grandfather offered it to him for free when he retired. Being a bricklayer and having only the daughter he adopted from my mothers first marriage at the time, he turned it down and it went to my mothers cousin who along with her husband immediately sold off the herd, let the land grow over and ruined it. I spent every waking moment I could growing up on local dairy farms, often working for little or even no pay because helping friends and neighbors was just normal life back then and idle children were frowned upon when there was work to be done and fun to be had doing it. I wanted more than anything to have my own farm and spend the rest of my life on it. Unfortunately I was plagued with health and back problems and by the time I graduated and started thinking of finding my farm to buy or booting my mothers cousin out and rebuilding my grandfather’s ( his suggestion and what he wanted me to do since it was all still his and he would have given it to me ) it was the late 1980’s my grandfather died and farms in our area were dropping like flies. Most of the dairy farms in the area I grew up in ( the northwest corner of New York State, St Lawrence county ), went away due to many factors, mismanagement, economics, the children leaving who should have taken over and grown and at least partially mechanized them etc. unfortunately up there the land wasn’t even really able to be repurposed for housing or other businesses and the area pretty much just died. Last time I was there was for my fathers funeral in 2000 and I spent a few days just driving around to see some of those farms and it made me sick with grief to see how much was just gone, in some cases almost without a single trace that a farm ever even existed there. Seeing fields I knew every inch of overgrown with trees and brush, barns I stacked hay in, helped milk in, farm yards and houses once filled with love and the smell of good cooking where I enjoyed a good meal or just visiting friends abandoned forlorn and empty shells or completely gone absolutely broke me and I have never been back😢.
It's sad that most farms are now house subdivisions and it's sadder that the farms weren't passed down cause the kids didn't want anything to do with it..
Also back in 1965, a TV sitcom about a successful New York lawyer and his glamorous Hungarian wife who gave up his job as a lawyer; as well as their luxurious Park Avenue penthouse. And they both move to a 160-acre farm with a 100-year-old broken-down and dilapidated farmhouse to satisfy his lifelong dream of becoming a farmer. And you know what show I'm talking about. That's right. I'm talking about Green Acres; which starred Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert as Oliver and Lisa Douglas; which is my all-time favorite TV show. At least on this 1965 farm, the Hartmans didn't have to climb up a telephone pole to answer their phone. Mrs. Hartman didn't have to make those atrocious hotscakes at every single meal either. Mr. Hartman probably didn't have a dimwitted county agent to give him any farming advice. Nor did he have a conniving salesman constantly selling him all kinds of useless junk. Mr. Hartman also never did his farm chores in a business suit. And Mrs. Hartman didn't wear any of those glamorous and sexy gowns, fancy hats, high-heeled shoes, fashionable suits and dresses, jewelry, and feathery negligees. And Mr. Hartman didn't make any speeches on the American farmer being the backbone of our economy with the fife playing Yankee Doodle in the background. This is real farming in this video.
Today a family dairy farm is an expensive hobby. I remember when a dairy farm could get by on 100 acres and milk 35 cows. One of our closest neighbors rented land from a bunch of farms and milked about 300 cows. At that time it was one of the biggest dairy farms in the area.
The opinions of the 2 farmers are echoed to this day. Although there are a lot less farms the story is the same. Small farms will persist as long as there's someone willing to do it and around here that's mostly Amish and Mennonite. Large dairies are family owned and employ many families.
Parents bought there farm in the early 60's, barn fire in mid 70's took them out of it. Made decent money. Early 80's I remember once, dad talked about getting back into it. Shortly after, the farm crises happened and he was glad he didnt make the leap and all this hoopla when they put it through trading and screwed the farmers over.
they are workn on some new Big Farmastein medimoos but need the fauci lab to integrate AI syringes into the udders,and then get a quote from ups and fedmex on the cost if shipping from pennsyvania blvd in beijing china to the USA
15:49 points out the reason why farmers here in Ontario about this time began "Supply Management". Not a perfect system but it offered a stable environment allowing smaller scale farmers to thrive through efficiency rather than sheer size and numbers. But it is always changing, and herds get larger.
I’m not sure what scene you are referring to, but I did some research a few weeks ago and I believe I found the farm featured in this documentary, although I can’t know for sure, do you know if this farm is still around?
Boy does that bring back memories. Small equipment, cows being handled everyday. Now day equipment that takes half a mile to turn around and cows being milked by computer controlled milkers and not seeing a person unless the computer tells them theres a problem. People were people and respectful of one another and could actually talk to you. Now day text message and social media. Nothing social about it.
I milked cows for 45 years. Quit in 2016. Used the Surge bucket milker with the strap over the cows back. Carried the milk to the tank to be dumped through a strainer on the balk tank. I never washed a cows udder / teats unless they had wet manure on them. Found early on.....the less you mess with a cows teats / udder the less problems with mastitis ! That includes using teat dips etc ! I used a gunny sack to remove excess dirt and put the milkers on ! I seldom had mastitis issues. However wet weather is still the primary cause of mastitic.....alone with frost bite during the winter time. Thats why I switched to milking cows / calving time in the spring time.....and the cows were ready to eat green grass ( rotational grazing ) And aaaaaaaaahhhhh that smell in the balk tank of fresh cut grass !!!! It took about two week for that smell to subside......to normal smelling milk.
Fortunately for 30 more years after this video many family dairies could be successful . After the 90s not many and now almost none . I'm glad I was a part of the good times .
I was born in 1970 and I got to live the end of it too. Last time I milked for anyone was probably mid 90's.
I started in 2020 and have been very sucsessful with 40 cows and 80 acers
"almost none" you need to get out and have a look around, lots of dairy farms still at it
I’m always amazed seeing all the small abandoned dairy barns around my area from late as the 90’s. There was a time a small operation like my family’s dairy farm could make a living on its own
I grew up in the 50s and 60s in Southwestern Ohio next to a holstein dairy farm. I was there as much as I could be from 9 years old. I loved it. Now the land is all subdivided and houses look like cookie cutter products. Makes me sad.
I bet it does make you sad. Am only in my mid late twentys, but I live in northern michigan, just about all through our county/ community, I see lots of old wooden barns of old farms, some still going today not dairy anymore, but wouldn't know that until my dad and uncle told me about it especially my dad, which like he told me once about 10 years ago "20,30 years ago lots of these dairy farmers were getting out of business, cuz kids didn't want to take over, and prices didn't helped". But today some are just beef farms, hay farms, horse farms, but of course some are abandoned a new owner living there but doesn't want to farm. Which in a way helps us out to get hay off of, but reality it's still sad around our nack of the woods. So we just look at its better to get hay off of other old farms then seeing houses on them, or definitely better to see trees growing instead houses, at least trees helps the atmosphere/ earth in general plus trees were there before humans ever were inerways.
The beginning of the end for small dairy farmers right here
Very interesting document. We see how relevant was the concerns of that time, and, at the end, money won the battle over life.
I grew up west of Waterloo, Iowa in the 70's and 80's. From about highway US20 north was the edge of the dairy belt. There were creameries in a lot of small towns back then and a lot of my friends parents milked. The creamery in our town closed about 82 and the nearest one about 15 miles away closed around 2005. I can think of only 1 or two families that still milk around my hometown.
Milking is a tough life 7 days a week, 365 a year. Sick? Get up and milk. Wanna go somewhere? Be home by 5 PM to milk. Going out tonight? Gotta be in the barn at 5 AM. Wanna go out of town? Vacation? Go away for a weekend? WHO'S GONNA MILK THE DAMN COWS? I have heard stories of guys back in the 90's who were proud they had never missed a milking in 25 years... 25 years of being basically held prisoner on your farm. And even if you want to try and get away how many people can milk a cow anymore? I haven't put on a milker on a cow since about 1993 and I'm 53 years old.
This is sad as the livestock industry, moreso than grain farming, helped keep small towns alive.
Man how times change when I moved to Newberry county sc in 1976 there was about 30 dairies in the county, 2 left! Thanks for the memories!
Every time I go by an abandoned farmstead or see a new subdivision going up where a family farm once was or the nearby almost or completely abandoned ghost towns that were once thriving supported by all the surrounding farms and connected businesses, and see main street with all it’s abandoned store fronts with fading signs I cry.
There is nothing in this world I miss more than being on a farm. I miss the long hard days of working the fields, milking, handling hay, feeding the cows, pigs, chickens etc. At the end of the day you could look back and see the fruits of your labors.
I wonder how many of the kids who instead of taking over the farms, because they saw greener pastures elsewhere doing other work have lived to regret their choice and wish they could have a do over?
When my father married my mother he could have taken over her family dairy, my grandfather offered it to him for free when he retired. Being a bricklayer and having only the daughter he adopted from my mothers first marriage at the time, he turned it down and it went to my mothers cousin who along with her husband immediately sold off the herd, let the land grow over and ruined it.
I spent every waking moment I could growing up on local dairy farms, often working for little or even no pay because helping friends and neighbors was just normal life back then and idle children were frowned upon when there was work to be done and fun to be had doing it.
I wanted more than anything to have my own farm and spend the rest of my life on it. Unfortunately I was plagued with health and back problems and by the time I graduated and started thinking of finding my farm to buy or booting my mothers cousin out and rebuilding my grandfather’s ( his suggestion and what he wanted me to do since it was all still his and he would have given it to me ) it was the late 1980’s my grandfather died and farms in our area were dropping like flies. Most of the dairy farms in the area I grew up in ( the northwest corner of New York State, St Lawrence county ), went away due to many factors, mismanagement, economics, the children leaving who should have taken over and grown and at least partially mechanized them etc. unfortunately up there the land wasn’t even really able to be repurposed for housing or other businesses and the area pretty much just died. Last time I was there was for my fathers funeral in 2000 and I spent a few days just driving around to see some of those farms and it made me sick with grief to see how much was just gone, in some cases almost without a single trace that a farm ever even existed there. Seeing fields I knew every inch of overgrown with trees and brush, barns I stacked hay in, helped milk in, farm yards and houses once filled with love and the smell of good cooking where I enjoyed a good meal or just visiting friends abandoned forlorn and empty shells or completely gone absolutely broke me and I have never been back😢.
Was raised on a hutterite colony. Hated the farm when i left cause we were slave worked as teens. Power washing hog barns 6 days a week.
It's sad that most farms are now house subdivisions and it's sadder that the farms weren't passed down cause the kids didn't want anything to do with it..
Also back in 1965, a TV sitcom about a successful New York lawyer and his glamorous Hungarian wife who gave up his job as a lawyer; as well as their luxurious Park Avenue penthouse. And they both move to a 160-acre farm with a 100-year-old broken-down and dilapidated farmhouse to satisfy his lifelong dream of becoming a farmer. And you know what show I'm talking about. That's right. I'm talking about Green Acres; which starred Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert as Oliver and Lisa Douglas; which is my all-time favorite TV show.
At least on this 1965 farm, the Hartmans didn't have to climb up a telephone pole to answer their phone. Mrs. Hartman didn't have to make those atrocious hotscakes at every single meal either. Mr. Hartman probably didn't have a dimwitted county agent to give him any farming advice. Nor did he have a conniving salesman constantly selling him all kinds of useless junk. Mr. Hartman also never did his farm chores in a business suit. And Mrs. Hartman didn't wear any of those glamorous and sexy gowns, fancy hats, high-heeled shoes, fashionable suits and dresses, jewelry, and feathery negligees. And Mr. Hartman didn't make any speeches on the American farmer being the backbone of our economy with the fife playing Yankee Doodle in the background. This is real farming in this video.
So thats what Zsazsa was. Very interest person, same its Barbara Walters.
@@alphaomega8373 Eva.
Today a family dairy farm is an expensive hobby. I remember when a dairy farm could get by on 100 acres and milk 35 cows. One of our closest neighbors rented land from a bunch of farms and milked about 300 cows. At that time it was one of the biggest dairy farms in the area.
13:50 this guy is Nostradamus, spot on in his projecting the future of farming
Sad though true
very different today. 1965 windrower @9.50.
The opinions of the 2 farmers are echoed to this day. Although there are a lot less farms the story is the same. Small farms will persist as long as there's someone willing to do it and around here that's mostly Amish and Mennonite. Large dairies are family owned and employ many families.
Parents bought there farm in the early 60's, barn fire in mid 70's took them out of it. Made decent money. Early 80's I remember once, dad talked about getting back into it. Shortly after, the farm crises happened and he was glad he didnt make the leap and all this hoopla when they put it through trading and screwed the farmers over.
Sad to see all the small family farms disappear. Only the mega farms can make it. I was born too late!
I milk 37 started in 2020 im 27 i asure you it can be done
@@jacksperf8003 It sure can ,except you have to be ok with not making much money
@@johngnipper8768 i made more than i ever did on an off the farm job this year alone
@@jacksperf8003 from 37 cows eh ? Just selling the milk or a product like yogurt or cheese.
@@johngnipper8768 just selling milk corn calves Made 120k owe 20,000 on income tax if i dont buy some stuff
This looks like it might be Monticello Wisc.
We need something like this today, people don't drink good milk like they used to
they are workn on some new Big Farmastein medimoos but need the fauci lab to integrate AI syringes into the udders,and then get a quote from ups and fedmex on the cost if shipping from pennsyvania blvd in beijing china to the USA
Milk is way better these days
Did you catch the fact that they bought their milk at the grocery store instead of drinking their own?
@@greggergen4254 No wonder they had no money.
15:49 points out the reason why farmers here in Ontario about this time began "Supply Management". Not a perfect system but it offered a stable environment allowing smaller scale farmers to thrive through efficiency rather than sheer size and numbers. But it is always changing, and herds get larger.
my husdan wathed this in the he was shocked the old gentleman waving was his gran father
I’m not sure what scene you are referring to, but I did some research a few weeks ago and I believe I found the farm featured in this documentary, although I can’t know for sure, do you know if this farm is still around?
Those were the good old days
Boy does that bring back memories. Small equipment, cows being handled everyday. Now day equipment that takes half a mile to turn around and cows being milked by computer controlled milkers and not seeing a person unless the computer tells them theres a problem. People were people and respectful of one another and could actually talk to you. Now day text message and social media. Nothing social about it.
Did this in Ohio during the seventys in Ohio oh how I miss it. I'm now seventy three years old.
I milked cows for 45 years. Quit in 2016. Used the Surge bucket milker with the strap over the cows back. Carried the milk to the tank to be dumped through a strainer on the balk tank. I never washed a cows udder / teats unless they had wet manure on them. Found early on.....the less you mess with a cows teats / udder the less problems with mastitis ! That includes using teat dips etc ! I used a gunny sack to remove excess dirt and put the milkers on ! I seldom had mastitis issues. However wet weather is still the primary cause of mastitic.....alone with frost bite during the winter time. Thats why I switched to milking cows / calving time in the spring time.....and the cows were ready to eat green grass ( rotational grazing ) And aaaaaaaaahhhhh that smell in the balk tank of fresh cut grass !!!! It took about two week for that smell to subside......to normal smelling milk.
If we could get the govorment and universities hands and laws off of Dairy, Dairy farming would be great again.
Look at those udders! Made to milk by hand.
And now we have robots milking cows.
7:30 wife doesn’t care about Laurence’s efforts with the bookkeeping
Those robot farms are going down hill now
Not around me