Con los pastos empezando a crecer y los nuevos programas de ayuda del gobierno, los productores de leche orgánica de California empiezan a ver un atisbo de alivio.
El aumento vertiginoso de los costes de producción, especialmente de los piensos orgánicos, ha asolado las centrales lecheras orgánicas en los dos últimos años, obligando a algunas a vender sus vacas y abandonar el negocio.
Su difícil situación llamó la atención del Departamento de Agricultura de EE.UU., que el mes pasado ofreció hasta $100 millones de ayuda financiera a través del recién creado Programa de Asistencia a la Comercialización de Productos Lácteos Orgánicos.
Perhaps more importantly, their economic hardships spotlighted some of the unique challenges that organic dairies face and gave way to “a political willingness” to help them, said Laetitia Benador, senior policy research specialist for CCOF.
“What these crises do is they really reveal the vulnerabilities in the system,” she said.
USDA’s assistance program, the funds of which are expected to be released in late spring or early summer, is intended to target small to medium-sized organic dairies. Administered by the USDA Farm Service Agency, payments go up to $40,000 and are capped at the first 5 million pounds of milk production. USDA said the amount is meant to cover up to 75 percent of a farm’s projected marketing costs in 2023.
Even before their current problems, organic dairy farmers have been struggling with thin margins for several years, Benador said. The state’s multiyear drought brought greater financial challenges as the availability of organic feed dwindled, with grain and hay costs climbing 30 to 60 percent.
Debido a la reducción del agua de riego procedente de la ciudad de Santa Rosa, el productor lácteo del condado de Sonoma Doug Beretta se vio obligado a dejar en barbecho casi 40 acres de cultivos de ensilado utilizados para alimentar a sus vacas. La sequía también acortó la temporada de pastos.
Grazing ended in August last year, when Beretta’s cows usually can stay on grass until the end of September. That meant having to buy more hay. Unable to afford the steep prices, he said, he was forced to sell more than 80 animals because he knew he would run short on feed.
Milking fewer cows reduced milk flow. The drought also affected the quality of the alfalfa hay he purchased, Beretta said, and that further cut milk production. “You could see it in the milk tank,” he said.
Debido a la escasez de agua, se cultivaba menos heno. Algunos productores de heno orgánico pasaron a cultivar heno convencional, reconociendo que podían obtener más rendimiento, dijo Dayna Ghirardelli, directora ejecutiva de la Oficina Agrícola del Condado de Sonoma.
Competition for supply grew fierce among livestock owners—organic and conventional. She noted how the hay shortage forced some conventional livestock owners to buy organic hay, “because hay in and of itself was hard to get.” This further shortened the supply of organic hay.
Para mantener su certificación, las centrales lecheras orgánicas no tienen la flexibilidad de utilizar piensos cultivados convencionalmente.
Organic dairy farmers also have little control over the grain feed they purchase, much of which comes from offshore, Benador said. That’s because the United States does not produce enough organic grains and has had to rely on imports from India and the Black Sea region.
La guerra entre Ucrania y Rusia dificultó el envío de cereales orgánicos desde Europa del Este, y un conflicto comercial con la India redujo aún más el suministro de grano, con un aumento de los costes de alrededor del 50%, señaló.
Because he operates in Humboldt County, dairy farmer Zach Cahill said he has “the luxury of being able to turn on the pump” to irrigate his pastures and grow his own silage crop, unlike many producers in Sonoma and Marin counties who don’t have access to wells.
What’s affected his business is the soaring cost of freight to move feed to the dairy and milk out to the creamery, he said. His milk goes to Rumiano Cheese Co. in Glenn County, and his alfalfa hay comes from Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Cahill estimates about a third of his feed cost is in transportation, “because we’re behind the redwood curtain,” he says. Total production costs have risen by at least 30 to 40 percent, while farmgate prices have increased 5 to 10 percent, he said.
“At that rate, it’s just been unsustainable,” Cahill said. “People have been bleeding cash flow for two years now and essentially milking away equity on their farms.”
Cahill, who serves as president of the Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, said organic dairy farmers are not the only ones feeling financial pain, as processors—buyers of their milk—also have faced increased costs, and “there’s a genuine concern that cash is going to flow out of this industry.”
As founder and CEO of Straus Family Creamery in Sonoma County, Albert Straus has felt the pain on both sides, as he also operates an organic dairy in Marin County. Besides producing its own milk, the creamery sources from 11 other dairies in the two-county region. One of them went out of business, and others have had to reduce their herd size, leaving the creamery “at times a little bit short” on milk.
Pero dijo que se considera afortunado porque la mayoría de las veces ha podido conseguir suficiente leche para sus productos, a pesar de que la leche orgánica es ahora más escasa en todo el estado. Señaló que 10 lecherías orgánicas han cerrado en los últimos años, con alrededor de 100 restantes en el estado a principios de 2022.
In addition to price increases he’s paid to his supplying dairies, Straus said federal and state grants will now provide additional relief. More importantly, recent rains and warming temperatures will help forage growth, allowing dairies to rely more on pasture and less on purchased feed.
“I think we’re starting to stabilize them a little bit,” he said. “Springtime is the time that they can start making a profit hopefully and pay back old bills and debt.”
A más largo plazo, se ha debatido la creación de un programa federal de red de seguridad adaptado a las centrales lecheras orgánicas. Los productores afirman que las herramientas de gestión de riesgos existentes no tienen en cuenta sus necesidades específicas y no han conseguido activar los pagos que les habrían ayudado.
“Ultimately, there should be a solution that is market based, where the price that the dairy farmer gets is a stable and consistent price that reacts to the fluctuations in the supply and the market,” Straus said.
Benador said she thinks the state’s new organic transition program and USDA’s organic transition initiative will both support an increase in domestic organic feed production and “will contribute to the long-term resilience of the organic livestock sector.”
La mejora de la disponibilidad de instalaciones de procesamiento de carne orgánica certificada también ayudará, dijo, ya que las centrales lecheras venden sus vacas para carne de vacuno. La posibilidad de obtener una prima orgánica en el momento del sacrificio sigue siendo una estrategia importante para que las centrales lecheras diversifiquen sus fuentes de ingresos.
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This article was written by Ching Lee and originally appeared in the California Farm Bureau Federation’s Ag Alert on February 15, 2023. Reprinted with permission.
Ching Lee es redactora adjunta de Ag Alert. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella en clee@cfbf.com.