For as long as Brandon can remember, he has wanted to own/operate his own dairy farm. He was born on a dairy farm in Western Washington. His parents sold their cows when he was just a child. Growing up he worked on various different dairy farms within his community. In 2008, after working at a local refinery, he decided to chase that lifelong dream. He began the process to receive financing, was approved and started the hunt for a farm.
Farming in his hometown was not an option as he could not compete with established dairy farms. Throughout the state, the only farms that were for sale were way out of reach for a new farmer. Through random connections he found out about a possible lease across the state. He traveled to the farm to speak to the retired dairy farmer about leasing his farm to start farming. The farmer told him no. The search for a farm continued.
The winter of 2009 a tragic accident hit my community. A local retired dairy farmer and well-known man was killed in a tragic car accident. The following spring the farmer’s family reached out to Brandon to see if he was still interested in leasing the dairy farm. He hadn’t had any luck finding a farm and was happy to be one step closer to farming. He packed up everything he owned, 20 heifers he had raised, made a stop along the way to buy cows and had to rush to the farm to get it ready before the cows arrived.
He was officially a dairy farmer.
In the meantime, my whole world seemed to be falling apart around me. I found myself in a situation I had never dreamed up. A newly single mother on the hunt for a job in a horrible economy. Through small town connections I was able to find employment at a local feed store. I knew nothing of farming, in fact the closest I had come to a dairy farm was driving past the “stinky old dairy farm” on my way too and from school.
Shortly after Brandon settled in, we met at the local feed store. We married the following summer.
Today we are currently milking 140 cows with 3 kids in tow. It is a great life we live. It has provided nicely for our family. But you know what? It has been hard. Some years harder than others. This year, this year has been a tough one to swallow.
We started the year receiving milk checks in which we were paid $10 less a hudered weight than we were just a couple of months prior. In addition, our cooperative had some issues in which some additional funds were taken out of our checks to fix the problem. It hit us hard financially, but we pushed through. This summer started with our main employee leaving for another job. It was a tremendous loss to our farm. You see, all of this isn’t really anything new. We have had several summers where we ran the entire farm with just us and our kids. In fact, the trials we face in farming are much the same as our fellow dairy farmers.
While we are used to everything we have been dealing with this summer, we were not prepared for the drought. The yields were down (many farmers reported 50% loss), water was in short supply and pastures ran out early. Several months early. We paid our normal rate to lease the pastures but still had to feed our animals the majority of the time. Overall this drought cost us a lot of money.
While all this was going on, we were approached by the owners of our farm about purchasing it. They want our farm to remain a farm, see kids running around and I really think they just want to see us succeed. A great family in which we are truly thankful for. It was happening. After six years of farming, six years of doing what everyone said would be impossible, we were going to be farm owners!
We signed the initial papers this week. It was surreal.
In the past 48 hours, all that changed. Well at least for the time being. We have received nothing but bad news. You see, this farm isn’t exactly new. In fact, there are parts of it that are pretty run down. We have spent the past six years constantly repairing one thing or another. But this week. This week hit us incredibly hard. The breakdowns and the maintenance that needs to be done if I am being honest, it’s a lot of money. Well what is a lot of money to a farm our size? Enough to make it so we do not have a down payment for the farm.
We had to make the call. We had to pull out of the sale.
Now, I am typically a pretty private person. I share enough to advocate for our industry and our fellow dairy farmers but sometimes it’s just hard to pretend everything is alright. It hurts to work this hard and have it all fall to pieces. It is hard to know that the “stinky old dairy farm” that I passed by as a kid isn’t going to be ours this fall as we had hoped. It’s hard to be that happy, positive person that people know when deep down you are hurting, when you are stressed & when you are feeling defeated.
Dairy farming is a hard life, it is a great life, it is a life full of trials and at the end of the day, there is still nothing else we would rather do. We may feel defeated, but we are not done fighting. This farm is our children’s future, it is my husband’s lifelong dream and it has now become my passion. I truly believe this is what we were called to do. And some day we will be the owners of this “stinky old dairy farm”.
Note: This is in no way to be “poor me” or to have anyone feel sorry for us. This is just me sharing our story in hopes that people see the truth behind the fun photos and graphics. Farming is hard. Consumers need to know what farmers go through and why.
Updated 2/2020: We ended up buying that “stinky old dairy farm” and now have five kids.
Krista Stauffer
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