[frankthetank]

Lactose intolerant...

[Dvanharn]

in Pt. Arena, a very small town on the northern California coast in Mendocino County. I was up there today & spoke to a deli/convenience store owner this afternoon who said that's what diesel fuel prices will be doing to his price according to his supplier.

I'm not sure if there is a major dairy in Mendocino County, so the many dairy farms around Pt. Arena are probably shipping the raw milk more than 100 miles in tanker trucks on the winding roads over the rugged coastal mountains to a dairy like Clover Stornetta in Petaluma in southern Sonoma County. Other diesel-fueled trucks would then bring the homogenized and pasteurized milk back to Pt Arena in retail containers.

I wonder at what point in the upward progression of the price of diesel fuel it will become practical for isolated regions like the Mendocino coast to have their own small dairies again? I would guess that government regulations, requirements, and complex and expensive reporting and documentation systems were factors in the loss of local dairies.

Do any of you small town and remote location peakoilers out there who have dairy farms in your area also have dairies in your vicinity?

Dave

P.S. It cost me more than $8 for a 9 oz. box of Nabisco Wheat Thins and 5 oz of Jarlsberg swiss cheese at the grocery/general store in Manchester, another small town just north of Pt. Arena. These people are going to get SLAMMED by P.O.!!!

p.p.s. Sunday evening traffic back south towards the Bay Area on picturesque Hwy 1 was the lightest I can remember in 45 years for this time of year. Tourism & premium wines (plus the massive underground economy of Mendocino premium marijuana) are the backbone of the Mendocino County economy, and the timber industry is a shadow of it's former self.

[wisconsin_cur]

Around here there are a few small cheese makers that buy local milk but everything else is very centralized. It is the small farmers who will be hit first and the hardest as they are already treated like charity cases by the big buyers. As fuel prices go up the trucks will probably stop rolling to those small dairy farmers because the amount of milk on hand will not be worth it.

I suppose that would be a good time for me to try to buy a few more acres from my small neighborhood ready to retire dairy farmer.

[Jack]

Yes, the increase in food prices is likely to produce considerable shock. It's an interesting "unintended consequence" of the alternative fuel push. And to think - isn't it interesting what's happening, so early in the game?

[milkman]

Or maybe it could be time to go introduce yourself to the local dairyman and try a gallon of raw milk right out of his bulk tank.
Skip the middle man (and transportation) altogether.
Check local laws concerning sale of raw milk.
Food raised and sold locally will have to be the norm in the future.
I would think the small guys would be able to adapt more easily than the mega-producers.

[Pops]

What people don’t realize is that the demand for corn is driving up the price of all feed as farmers switch to the more profitable crop. Even some marginal ground long since relegated to hay and pasture is being planted to corn again – driving up the price of hay.

Wheat, beans, corn, hay are all up, partly due to bad weather and higher fuel and fertilizer costs, partly because there is so much money out there looking for somewhere to go, but I think mostly due to bio-fuel demand.

Also remember that higher feed and other input costs affect different products in different time frames. Dairy, eggs and poultry for example will reflect higher input costs faster than beef because their production cycle is measured in days and weeks instead of months and years.

Stay tuned...

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', ' ')And to think - isn't it interesting what's happening, so early in the game?

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '
')Exactly what I was thinking; I don’t remember seeing this in my Lucite Ball…

[milkman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') did know cattle takes a lot of energy to keep. One of the reasons I went vegetarian, back in the day when I didn't know about peak oil... I just don't like unnecessary waste.

[jdmartin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('milkman', '
')Unless you raise your own vegan food, I would have to be convinced of the energy savings in being a vegetarian.
Food, whether meat or veg., travel thousands of miles to market, as well as the folks working in the fields.

[WisJim]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('milkman', '
')Unless you raise your own vegan food, I would have to be convinced of the energy savings in being a vegetarian.
Food, whether meat or veg., travel thousands of miles to market, as well as the folks working in the fields.

[retiredguy]

Apropos of what Pops wrote.

I see far fewere acres around here planted in soy beans this year. What's planted in their place? Corn, of course. I would expect bean prices to rise along with corn. This replacement situation is undoubtedly happening with other crops as well.

The fertlizer producers must be raking in the money this year.

[nella]

retiredguy, I syopped and thought about the crops I've seen in fields around here. You're right. I'm seeing corn, not soybeans.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('milkman', 'O')r maybe it could be time to go introduce yourself to the local dairyman and try a gallon of raw milk right out of his bulk tank.
Skip the middle man (and transportation) altogether.
Check local laws concerning sale of raw milk.
Food raised and sold locally will have to be the norm in the future.
I would think the small guys would be able to adapt more easily than the mega-producers.

[WisJim]

I have heard that some folks who have been renting an acre or 2 for a market garden are unable to rent the plot this year, because the farmers who own the land are planting everything they can to corn, even the small odd acres that they considered inconvenient to farm in previous years.

[retiredguy]

I spent a couple of months this winter harvesting trees (free) from a fence line between two corn fields. Didn't ask the farmer why, because I already knew the answer.

[Mircea]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdmartin', 'I')'m not a vegetarian but it would be a reasonable assumption that there is less energy attached to eating the plant directly (ie vegetarian) than eating the plant through a secondary channel (ie eating the cow that ate the corn). There is usually (always?) energy loss transferring one energy source to another.

[skiwi]

Panic buying hits global dairy trade

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')Panic buying" appears to have broken out in the global dairy trade as supply constraints ratchet prices up into uncharted territory, according to agricultural forecaster Agrifax.

The latest data from the NZX-owned rural information provider show prices for milk powders jumped 4 per cent, and butter leapt 10 per cent, in the past fortnight in US dollar terms...
..The drought in Australia, increasing use of land to grow corn for biofuels in the US, and Westernised diets in rapidly developing regions such as Asia and the Middle East are driving a surge in dairy prices, and supply can't keep up with demand.

"They just need product," Agrifax founder and market analyst David Meares said. "And it's not there."..

[shortonoil]

The rumor from farmers around here, is that the Chinese have bought every bushel of corn, wheat and soybeans that they can get their hands on. They also say that they have bought all the dried milk and whey that they can find. All that cheap, made in China junk, that Americans have been so thrilled about accumulating, may turn out to be a little more expensive than they anticipated.

[MC2]

Well, what's all this emphasis on corn and ethanol production going to do to the price of booze??




Maybe we should all park our cars, stay home, and drink.