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From the Fields: Recent rains add to spring woes
<i>Originally published in the June 26, 2009, print edition.</i>
Hearing about some North Dakota farmers still harvesting 2008 corn and planting soybeans in mid-June made the spring challenge of Becker County dairy farmers John and Mike Schouviller of Callaway seem a little less daunting.
Even so, John said it was about June 10 before they got their final field, a spring seeding of alfalfa, in the ground. They didn’t get into fields until May 18.
In a June 22 telephone visit, John said, “Corn is now 6 to 8 inches tall and getting weedy. We need to spray but over the past weekend we got soaked pretty good again so spraying is delayed at least a couple more days.”
However, Mother Nature cooperated a few days in early June so the first cutting of their alfalfa got wrapped up June 15. “Got it all chopped and bunkered so it’s good quality. Then it rained Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. So we’ve got plenty of moisture in our soils for the time being. What we need now is a stretch of hot, ‘sunshiny’ weather and it sounds like that could happen this week.”
Milk production is holding up good so far, averaging about 70 pounds per cow per day currently from their 120 cows, which get milked in a 12-stall “all-in, all-out” parlor. Milking time starts 3:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each day. That’s because both John and Mike have young families with lots of activities on the schedule. As you can imagine, there’s always plenty of chores for children in a dairy farming operation. John has three children, Mike has five.
“Matt’s in summer baseball league in Detroit Lakes so every Tuesday and Thursday night we’re watching him (Matt is 11),” John said. Grandpa Nick takes Matt into town for the 6 p.m. practice with Mom and Dad then showing up for the 7 p.m. game. When The Land called, Mike and family were vacationing in Colorado so this meant extra chores for John’s family. John, Mike and Mike’s wife, Lois, usually do the daily milking. In early July it’s John’s family vacation for a few days, first at the Medora, N.D., Musical Festival then out to Yellowstone National Park.
About the last thing to discuss with dairy farmers these days is milk prices but it’s inevitable. “Because we have some production contracted at $19 we averaged about $12 for May. Our base price was $10.30 but with some component premiums (butter fat, protein and solids not fat, plus low somatic cell count) plus another $1 or so on the higher contract price, which made us about an extra $2,000 last month. We’re still running short,” John said.
Even though the Shouvillers’ 480 acres of corn and alfalfa produce most of their feed, John said that dairying is a “red-ink” business currently. “I suspect like all dairy farmers we’re expecting milk prices to start rebounding this fall. Right now it seems every time I call (Perham Co-op) the cheese price goes down. I’m trying to buy our purchased feeds (canola meal for protein versus soybean meal plus up to 5 pounds of distillers grain per cow) as cheaply as possible but this is a constant challenge too.”
Wrapping up this visit, John said that considering their season, crops are looking relatively good, adding, “we’re better off being too wet than being too dry. Even that late-planted 40-acre field of soybeans is poking along OK.” Soybeans are strictly a cash crop for the Shouvillers to help pay for a few of the bills this fall and winter.
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