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In 2005, the Cramers, a family of eight (Mom, Dad, four kids, and two grandparents), rented the farm on a $3,000/month rent-to-own agreement. They had 110 cows and that SHOULD be enough to make a living with, provided prices stay above the cost of production.
With dairy in the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the Cramers were $600k in debt at the time the article was written. They hadn't paid the last nine months worth of rent to Wolff. A year before they considered taking out a mortgage instead of renting from Wolff, but by 2009 with the credit crisis that was entirely off the table. If the Cramers sold all of their cows and equipment, they could make $130k - not nearly enough to cover their debt. And leaving farming is also a difficult way to go, as neither parent has no training or education outside of farming. Neither went to college. Karen Cramer said "Finding a job in this economy is not happening."
Here's what Karen Cramer said about Wolff (a former failed dairy farmer himself, and now an agribusiness lobbyist):
Cramer was stunned by the timing of the eviction. Dairy farmers everywhere are struggling Milk prices are at a historic low. And cattle are fetching about a third of what they were two years ago, she said.
Cramer said it's about the worst time possible for a farm family to face a move or sale.
"He knows that. He knows the dairy industry better than anyone," Cramer said.
Wolff's reply was that the cows were skinny and the Cramers weren't feeding them well. He justified his decision saying that they have no way to pay their rent, let alone feed their cattle. He posted an eviction notice on their barn on September 5, and I believe they were given about a month before they had to leave. I don't know what happened in the end. When the article was written, Karen Cramer was desperately looking for a new farm, a new home, or anything that might give her family and her cows a place to go.
Clearly, we need to do something to help the dairy industry. It took the government one week to bail out Wall Street from a crisis that was their own making but dairy farmers are on their own when they suffer a crisis that isn't their own fault. |
