The dairy farm I work for put is trying to get into the next buyout. Dairy farming really sucks right now and you are just losing a lot of money a day. It is a hard dicision to try get into the buyout but a lot of farms are trying to get into them so there is still a chance that the one I work for won't make it in.
A buyout is selling all the animals for slaughter so it really is hard to choose to try get into one. When we sold our dairy the cows and calves actually went to another farm in Eastern Washington and that was hard enough. I think my dad and my uncles wouldn't have let them take them away for slaughter...you really do get attached to cows.
If the dairy I work for gets in they are probably only going to do all the cows and build their way back up. They'd keep all the heifers (heifers become cows when they have a calf) and the calves but it would make things really slow on our end for about 4 years. It would take 2 years to get their whole milking herd up to 700 again and I would guess another 2 years till they have as much cows/heifers calving as they do now. So I could be without a job...what I do is feed all their calves along with my dad.
I think it would be the hardest on my aunt...all the cows they have right now she was the one to raise as calves. If they sold all the cows all the animals they would have would (almost all) be ones that we raised. It is a pretty big deal to actually raise a dairy's calves for them...what we do with the calves can really hurt/help.
I don't know if I want them to get into the buy out or not because 1) they are losing a ton of money and there is no way they can keep losing that much but 2) I would probably not work their anymore.
However I do have another potential job feeding calves for another dairy...of course who knows how long they can last either.
I guess I want whatever is really best to happen even though I'd hate it if they got into the buyout. Trying to figure out how another dairy farm feeds their calves and feeding them is hard after working for one that keeps everything perfect. Plus we have less than a 1% death loss and the other dairy is at least 5%...so the standards that the one i work for right now are really high.
The problem for me is that feeding calves is my main source of money for taking care of the farm cats. Plus I really love working where I am now and don't want to switch farms.
