Dairymen encounter rising costs, enviro laws

This morning I interviewed Frank Martins, co-owner of the Martins Family Dairy in Orland, for a special section the Capital Press is publishing on dairies later in the spring. Frank and his brother, Mario, are the second generation of a family of dairymen who emigrated to the U.S. from Portugal.

Like most farmers who work with livestock, Frank Martins laments the high cost of feed and blames the ethanol industry for driving up the price of corn. However, more than most commodities, dairy farmers in California must grapple with environmental regulations that force them to spend hours away from their animals doing paperwork. Martins makes the point that while urban lawmakers like the idea of the small dairy farmer milking his own cows, the regulations they pass creates a market that favors large-scale producers that have enough cows and land to justify the cost of such things as EIRs that can run a quarter of a million dollars.

The Martins' farm is one of more than a dozen around the West that we'll be profiling for a section themed "We Are Dairy". Stay tuned.