1/ Two of the dairy farms I wrote about in 2020 sold their cows this year. It was the biggest dairy (1,200 cows) and the smallest (10 cows).

I followed up with these two farms to see what led them to the decision to sell out and stop milking.

2/ The Andreases came upon an opportunity to sell their entire milking herd all at once. They’ve entertained offers to sell out before. But this was one they couldn’t pass up. https://www.farmanddairy.com/news/going-out-when-going-big-in-dairy-isnt-enough-anymore/643577.html

3/ “Sometimes you say, if you could get enough out of your investment, you’d be foolish to say no. And that’s what happened here. The conditions were right. The debt load was right that we could exit and still do whatever we wanted to do and stay in agriculture.” - Dan Andreas

4/ For the Oravets family, they were being worn thin by doing it all. They milked a small herd of Ayrshires and made aged cheeses. Everything happened in their backyard. It was amazing and beautiful and also hard as heck to balance everything. https://www.farmanddairy.com/news/10-cows-to-no-cows-when-doing-it-all-becomes-too-much/643589.html

5/ “The chores for the cows, it was probably six hours of our day was barn stuff, let alone cheese stuff,” Rebecca Oravets said. “A batch of cheese is a good 12+ hours of our day. It wasn’t adding up to enough sleep with two little kids.”

6/ Their milk inspector connected them with another small dairy farm nearby doing things similar to how they did. They started buying some milk in and eventually sold their herd.

It was hard, but they knew it was the only way they’d expand their growing cheese business.

7/ Interestingly, the pandemic didn’t force these dairies out. For the Oravets family, it changed how they sold their cheese a bit (more retail, less wholesale), but their biz was already growing and just continued steadily.

8/ The Andreases, when milk prices tanked in the spring, it hurt them. But they were set up well enough to keep plugging along if they wanted to for years.

They’d considered other options before. The dairy industry wasn’t exactly doing great before March 2020.

9/ These two farms are at opposite ends of the dairy farm spectrum. One really big, conventional, dealing with the commodity milk market. The other super small, making cheese, selling into a niche market.

But they both came to the same conclusion this year.

10/10 Of course, every farmer has to do what’s right for them. But Matt Andreas said something that every farmer (and probably every person) should consider at some point.

“You only have one life to live.”

How do you want to live it?