SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
These are hard instances for a lot of americans. For American dairy farmers, even a bit greater. Milk costs are now simply two-thirds what they have been 5 years ago. Cows are making greater milk, whilst plant-based mostly substitutes like soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and others have captured more of the market. Mark Berg, a dairy farmer in Pine Island, Minn., who's in company with his fogeys, Tom and Penny, posted a video on fb to try to explain probably the most brutal economics farmers now confront.
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MARK BERG: i like these fricking cows greater than the rest. I do not wish to do anything else, you comprehend? and then, you understand, I don't - i'm now not financially strong ample to take over a farm. and you'll't take over a business this is going to fail, you be aware of? And here is like a certain failure.
SIMON: it be been seen almost half 1,000,000 times far and wide the area. Mark Berg and his mom, Penny Berg, join us now. I want to thanks each very tons for being with us.
M BERG: thank you.
PENNY BERG: thank you.
SIMON: Penny Berg, let me begin with you. How lots cash do you are making in the dairy company these days, as adversarial to 5 years in the past?
P BERG: neatly, what Tom and that i have always executed is we now have at all times been able to put funds into our discount rates. Like, if we promote a cow or if we promote a calf or, like, we get checks, you understand, at the beginning of the year. neatly, with the milk expenditures being down for the last 4 years, as of right now, our discount rates has diminished to zero. And so every determine - it all has to move directly into our checking account to make ends meet. And after four years, it be not making ends meet.
SIMON: smartly, provide us, in case you may, please, some conception of one of the vital difficult selections you have to make simply to get with the aid of week to week, month to month.
P BERG: one of the crucial hardest choices for us is we're making an attempt to come to a decision which of our animals will ought to be bought. we'll likely should sell around at least 20. And the feed purchase expenses are very excessive at present, too, so we are going to ought to sell animals so we now have enough to feed those we do have.
SIMON: are you able to provide us an idea of how challenging you work - what a day is like for you?
P BERG: There are mornings that i am up as early as three:30. We feed calves before we start our morning milking around 6 o'clock. This morning, i used to be up, for instance, at 10 to 4 and may probably get within the apartment tonight, i might say, 9:30 or so. Of direction, we stop and have lunch collectively. And if i'm not backyard helping Mark and Tom, i am inner doing publication work or trying to do some laundry, if that is possible.
SIMON: Do you ever have a time without work?
P BERG: well, we try to have as a minimum a milking off, and that always ends up for Tom and me on a Sunday evening. And if Mark has a date with his female friend or anything, we try to give him day off, too. it is difficult. I suggest, we have very, very decent excessive faculty younger guys that come and help us after they are done at college. That helps the work load some, however's nonetheless there.
SIMON: Mark Berg, what's it like so that you can see your mother work this difficult - and your father?
M BERG: You be aware of, to watch mom and pa work that hard, I suggest, or not it's - if I needed to describe it in a observe, it would be unfair - just because, you understand, both mom and him are growing older, and that they work tougher now than they ever have in their whole lifestyles. And it's no longer simplest physically draining, however it's mentally draining.
SIMON: Why did you are taking the step of sharing your cases and concerns on facebook?
M BERG: I bet what - perhaps what brought me to post it turned into that I don't like to see the frustration in my household like it is. and that i - and it's as a result of this is simply a tough enterprise to be in currently for everyone. and that i on the whole posted it to just inform individuals who i do know in my view. And it ended up achieving a worldwide scale.
SIMON: Penny Berg, difficult so you might hear your son speak like that?
P BERG: Yeah, it's. or not it's tough for the total household. i'm completely satisfied he did what he did, though, because the responses have - that he is gotten again were overwhelming. I suggest, it's - there is farmers that have been my husband and that i's age that have said, thank you, Mark, for doing this as a result of we couldn't have. and i suppose the equal manner. I might've never finished that. Farmers are proud americans, and they're not going to tell somebody that they're having rough instances. So I believe what Mark did turned into great.
SIMON: Mark Berg, do you ever suppose about going into an additional line of labor?
M BERG: At this aspect, I bet I've in no way - I do not see myself doing a different line of work simply because of the fact that, you know, i like taking care of the animals. and that i know for a proven fact that now i am at the factor in my existence where if cows have been not part of my day, i would not be satisfied with what i was doing.
SIMON: Penny Berg, you see a method out?
P BERG: I form of have the same emotions that Mark does. I bet the manner out would be to have the milk costs increase. however I cannot see myself with an empty barn. I've - i like the animals, and i cannot see myself do anything. I just cannot.
SIMON: Penny Berg, Mark Berg - mom and son dairy farmers in Minnesota - thank you so a whole lot for being with us.
M BERG: thank you.
P BERG: thanks for having us.
(SOUNDBITE OF track) Transcript supplied by way of NPR, Copyright NPR.
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