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By Bill Willcox : The Herald-Sun
bwillcox@heraldsun.com
Jul 10, 2004 : 8:07 pm ET
MEBANE -- Jeff Sykes rides his all-terrain vehicle down a hill at his dairy farm near Mebane. The afternoon sun caresses the green hills and soft cumulus clouds surrounding his land.
He jumps out of the vehicle and starts whistling and yelling as dozens of cows lazily rise to their feet and walk out of the shade, down a hill and up toward the barns for their afternoon milking.
"Once you get them going, they know what to do," the 40-year-old farmer said, a twinkle of humor brightening his face.
Sykes' love for the land and his animals is evident in his actions. He's happy that milk prices have recently spiked higher. But he holds no illusions. The life of a dairy farmer in Orange County is a struggle.
"It's a lot of up and down," he said. "It's a roller coaster. For two years we've been going in the hole," he said. "Now that milk prices are up, maybe we can start paying a few bills."
The price for most milk produced in the United States is set by the federal government through federal marketing orders. There are 31 marketing orders in the country, covering the major population centers. Each order sets its own price.
Locally the price for milk has been very low for about three years, but recently a shortage of supply in the Southeast caused the price for milk to jump from about $14 per 100 pounds to $20. The price is expected to drop to $15 to $16 per 100 pounds next month.
That's bad news for Sykes.
"When the price goes back down again we are going to be back in the same boat," he said. "I think you really, really got to love it and want to see the farming continue, or you got to get out."
Locally, many farmers have opted to get out. In 1986, there were 48 dairies in Orange County, but today there are only 18.
As with many other commodities, it's less expensive to ship milk here than produce it locally. "Milk is moved all over the country," said Royce Hardin, an agent with N.C. Cooperative Extension. "Their states can produce milk at a much lower cost than our states can. It's put our producers at a disadvantage."
Large 5,000-cow dairy operations in the Southwest, in states like Texas, Arizona and California, can produce milk more cheaply than can Orange County's small 120-cow farms.
Compounding the problem are new environmental regulations that have increased costs for Orange County dairy farmers.
"All our farmers try to adopt environmentally sound practices," Hardin said. "Dairies in particular have had to do some extra things in the last 15 years. They've had to invest in new waste management systems and install 'best-management' practices to protect water resources. Some were mandated and some were done on their own volition, but all have created additional expenses."
Another problem is that the younger generation is choosing not to take over the farm because it's too much work for too little money.
"No one is coming on in the next generation to take it," Hardin said. "The children and grandchildren of dairy farmers have chosen other careers that are more lucrative and require much less work. Why work seven days a week for almost no money, when you can work five days a week for a lot of money?"
Russ Seibert, manager of Maple View Farm, once asked his children if they would like to go into dairy farming. "My youngest daughter's response was, 'After seeing you all these years, why would I even consider it?' "
Finding a way to succeed
Go into any Harris Teeter or Lowe's Supermarket and the one local product that stands out is Maple View Farm milk, in its trademark glass bottles. Located seven miles northwest of Carrboro on Dairyland Road, Maple View has developed a successful business model through ingenuity and appears poised to thrive for decades to come.
In 1994 Maple View Farm put 100 acres of its land into a conservation easement, ensuring that it would stay a dairy, or a natural area, for perpetuity. More land was added to the conservation easement later. The move was significant because the owners of the property clearly wanted the area to remain the same, and not be developed.
"We had to try to figure out a way where it was feasible for the farming, and a young guy could get in and hopefully make it, because it was tough most years, with the milk price, federal order and you had no control over it," Seibert said.
After a couple years of planning, the farm started a new business: a milk plant to buy, bottle and distribute the milk produced on the farm.
The new milk plant was a separate business, but more importantly, it was not governed by the federal order and could set its own prices. In fact, the farm has not raised its price in response to the regional shortage (meaning half gallons are 40 cents cheaper than other brands at Harris Teeter, for the time being.)
The move to create the Maple View Farm brand of milk took advantage of a strong interest in supporting local agriculture and the allegiance of hundreds of schoolchildren who had visited the farm on field trips.
Another venture started a few years ago had many locals shaking their heads, doubting whether it would succeed. The farm opened an ice cream store next to the farm.
"The ice cream store, it's done just fine," Seibert said. "It moves out more of the raw product. We process it there, make the ice cream mix at the milk plant, and the ice cream is made right there at the store. So anything that can move more of our product out is helping the farm."
A new store, Maple View 2, recently opened in Hillsborough. It is not a franchise, but it does use Maple View Farm products and therefore benefits the farm.
The farm also recently got into the beef business. "We started raising steers a couple of years ago, and we're moving a lot of beef through the store now," Seibert said. "We've got about 50 steers. They go up to a small plant north of Burlington, are packaged and processed there with our label and brought back here."
There are ideas for using the ice cream store. "We may try to move some local produce through there," Seibert said. "We already sell eggs from Latta's, Mrs. Cheek does baskets, Jack Tapp's honey, Portia's cheese, a number of things. If the people are here, we might as well offer them as much as we can."
Pasture-fed animals
Mike Lanier spends his time in an office in Hillsborough analyzing the opportunities available for Orange County farmers as the agricultural economic development coordinator for Orange County.
One of his crusades is to get people to recognize the health benefits of meat, eggs and dairy products that are based on pasture and not confinement. He looks askance at all the confinement-based products being shipped here from other states, products with unhealthy fat profiles.
"Almost all of our meat, eggs and dairy is produced in confinement situations, and that wasn't true 30 or 40 years ago," he said. "In confinement [the animals] get grain. In changing their diets, it's changed the fat profiles. It's not necessarily that fats are bad, it's the kinds of fats that are bad."
He has been working with the Integrative Medicine Program at UNC Hospitals, where health care providers are starting to pass this information on to their patients. Doctors are even prescribing foods that have healthy fat profiles.
Lanier wants to get the word out. He views the Orange County farm landscape as ideally suited for pasture. "This area has traditionally been a grazing area," he said. "We had a lot of dairies 50 years ago. There are still 20 and that's a lot for today."
While educating the public on the health benefits of pasture-fed animal products is important to Lanier, he sees specific near-term opportunities for local dairy farmers.
He thinks adding value to the raw product is the key. Specifically he sees specialty or artisan cheeses as an opportunity. Chapel Hill Creamery is already tapping this market, but Lanier thinks the idea can be developed further.
"I think there's a demand there," he said. "If we can have some farmers that are interested, figure out how to finance it, and find cheese makers, then I think we can do something with that."
One thing is certain, he said: Dairy farmers need to do something.
"Commodity bulk milk has been selling for below what it costs to produce it for the last three years," Lanier said. "[Dairy farmers] have been holding out, eating into the equity in their farms. It's hard when you're in that position to figure out what to do. When it's been in your family for two or three generations, it's really hard to let go of it, too. It's a family tradition."
Jeff Sykes would agree.
"I wouldn't want to sell it," he said. "It means a lot to me to be able to come out here and live in the country, and I know how I grew up, and I'd like to be able to see my kids do that. I feel too strong about keeping the land to just let it go and develop it. I think we've got enough developments around. Daddy and them worked too hard to make it happen and all the sweat they put into making this farm work. I'd hate to just up and sell it."