ARE FARMERS RICH?

 ARE FARMERS RICH?

One thing I hear all the time is that farmers are rich. This can be a tricky statement because of how you define rich. If you take into effect all of the assets the farmer has (Land, livestock, tractors and other equipment, as well as buildings) then the farmer is seen as being rich. If you go by the money in their bank account, then not so much.





Right now, land in Southwestern Ontario will cost you anywhere from $5,000-$23,000 per acre. If you were to buy a pig ready for market it would be worth roughly $160. If you bought a beef cow ready for market it would be worth between $1,500-$1,800, and a sheep would be worth $200-$500.

A dairy farmer is only paid an average of $0.70 per litre of milk produced. In addition to the price of the cow, the farmer has to pay other bills (Feed, vet visits, wages, fuel, hydro......) from that $0.70 per litre they receive. Once all the farm expenses are paid, the farmer only makes a few dollars a day to cover their personal expenses. The dairy farmer is limited on how much milk they can ship by the amount of quota they owns. One kilogram of quota allows a farmer to produce one kilogram of butter fat a day (which is about 25 litres of milk), which is roughly equivalent to one cow. currently, In Ontario, one kilogram of quota costs $24,000.

Another example is when you buy a loaf of bread at the store. The farmer that grew and harvested the grain for that loaf of bread only gets about $0.08 per loaf, while the consumer is charged $3.

If a farmer were to sell their land and equipment, they could probably become very rich. However, without selling their farm, a farmer is not that rich because their money is tied to land, livestock, and equipment.

So are farmers rich? I guess its all in how you define rich.

Got Milk? How milk gets from the Cow to cup

Have you ever wondered how the milk you buy at the store got there? 

In order for the milk to get to the store for you to buy it, it most go through many steps.


To start producing milk a dairy cow needs to freshen(A milk cow freshens after she has calved) .

Once a cow starts producing milk, she will get milked 2-3 times a day with a machine called a milker  The milk is then pumped to a big cooler that will keep the milk cool until it is picked up by the milk man.

On most farms the milk gets picked up every other day by an insulated transport tanker that will take the milk to a dairy processing plant. The milk is tested before it is loaded on to the truck and again at the processing plant to make sure it meets strict quality and sanitation regulations. If  the quality of the milk does not meet proper quality standards the farmer will face heavy penalties and/or fines.

Once at the dairy processing plant milk undergoes pasteurization, homogenization, separation and further processing.

Pasteurization machine

Pasteurization: The act or process of heating a food, especially a beverage such as milk or beer, to a specific temperature for a specific period of time in order to kill microorganisms that could cause disease, spoilage, or undesired fermentation. 

Homogenization machine

Homogenization: Involves pushing the raw milk through an atomizer to form tiny particles so that the fat is dispersed evenly throughout the milk, stopping the fat from floating to the top of the container.

Separation: Involves spinning milk through a centrifuge to separate the cream from the milk. After separation, the cream and remaining milk are remixed to provide the desired fat content for the different types of milk being produced. 

For "whole milk," the cream is reintroduced until the fat content reaches 3.25%. For "low fat milk," the fat content is 1%. For "skim milk" (sometimes called nonfat milk) the fat content is .05%. 

Machine for filtering and further processing

 Further processing: Includes micro-filtration, increasing the storage life by ultra high temperature (UHT) treatment, and mixing or culturing milk for flavored and yogurt products.

Once the milk has gone through all its processing it is ready to be packaged and shipped to the store, the milk is kept in a big cooler at the store until you buy it and take it home to enjoy.

(http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000658)

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pasteurization)