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Between 2012 and 2017, the number of farms in Erie County increased from 1,422 to 1,162.
WATTSBURG – Dean Curtis did not need to see the results of the US Census of Agriculture to find out what happened to the dairy industry in the area.
Curtis, who started working alongside her father at the age of 10 and started running her own dairy farm in 1972, decided years ago that family dairy farms were in trouble.
He tried to get out of it.
Curtis, 67, paid attention when industry experts said dairy farmers needed to expand or get out of it. Twenty years ago, he treated 150 cows and was one of the largest dairy farms in Erie County.
But the size did not save him.
On June 23, the second day of summer 2018, he and his wife, Suzanne, sold their cows and farm machinery, closing a dairy farm owned by his family since 1931.
The figures released Thursday by the US Department of Agriculture clearly show that the Curtis family is part of a larger whole.
Between 2012 and 2017, the latest year for which statistics are available, the number of farms in Erie County has increased from 1,422 to 1,162. The number of dairy farms, meanwhile, has dropped from 69 to 57. The decline was even more pronounced in Crawford County, long a dairy district, where the number of dairy farms increased from 153 to 112.
The land area used for agriculture in Erie County has also declined from 168,000 acres in 2012 to 153,000 acres in 2017.
What the numbers do not show is something that Curtis, whose farm closure is not even counted in these numbers, sees every day as he passes through dairy barns abandoned in a truck sparkling cistern. He has a new dairy truck driver career, delivering to Dean Foods Co. in Sharpsville, Mercer County, the same company that was processing his milk at Meadow Brook Dairy in Erie before it closed in 2018.
The pace of farm closures has only accelerated in the past year since Dean Foods closed its Erie plant and announced to more than 100 dairy farmers in eight US states that it would not buy more milk because he was waiting for Walmart to put a processing plant online. .
"It's a depressing problem," said Curtis, who spends twelve hours a day traveling between increasingly isolated farms as he works to fill his truck. "It's a depressing problem when I see other farmers end up in the same mess – it's not pretty where you look."
Curtis and his wife had everything to lose. It's different for a lot of local farmers. According to the latest census of agriculture, it is clear that agriculture is a part-time activity for many.
In the 2012 agricultural census, less than half identified themselves primarily as farmers. This question was not asked in the last survey, but the figures paint the same picture. Of the 1,162 farmers in Erie County, 537 reported farming income of less than $ 5,000.
There are many others, including Curtis, whose gross sales exceed $ 100,000 a year. In Erie County, 182 farmers reached this threshold in 2017, while 170 surpassed this business figure in Crawford County.
But that does not mean that farmers are getting rich.
Curtis explained the problem during an interview in 2009, while milk prices were at a low point.
"We have long-term debt and short-term debt," he said at the time. "Our cash is non-existent and we are sort of on credit."
Like many farmers, he viewed his livestock as an investment that he would sell someday and finance his retirement.
Reality has fallen short of these dreams. The proceeds of his auction paid a portion but not all of his bills. He still works 60 hours a week and plans to sell some of his land to pay for the rest.
The proceeds of his auction was a disappointment.
"The good dairy cows that were worth $ 2,000 – you were lucky enough to get 400 or $ 500 – nobody wanted them," he said.
The decline of the local dairy industry, gradual between 2012 and 2017, faster since then, has been beneficial to no one, said Mark Muir, a Union Township farmer who raises sheep and beef cattle and is president of the Erie County Farm Office.
"It's a spiral," he said, which brings down the price of beef every time a struggling dairy farmer sells an old dairy cow to burger.
"It's quite difficult," he said about the agricultural landscape. "Interest rates are going up, your inputs are going up, it's not paying in. Many people are trying niche markets, but it's very difficult to get there."
Muir, who is 64 years old and has been working in agriculture for 40 years and covering his health insurance, is more successful than others.
At least he continues to cultivate.
Curtis wishes he could say the same thing.
It was not so much leaving that he bothered him.
"It was the idea that we had to stop," he said.
Instead, he goes from one farm to another while he zigzags in the countryside to find the last dairy farmers who do business with his company.
"You would not believe the miles you have to go to fill a truck," he said. "I've driven this truck 40,000 km since November."
The cows roam in his farm, but they do not belong to him. He rented the barn and land to another farmer.
Standing in his empty parlor, Curtis is remembered as if he had no choice but to quit.
"I could not even come here two weeks after the sale," he said. "It was too hard."
Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.
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