NORTHEAST OHIO DAIRY SURVEY
Applied Research
David Marrison
Professor
The Ohio State University
Coshocton
Abstract
The dairy industry accounts for $56,908,000 of gross cash receipts for the five northeast Ohio counties. Early in 2013, community leaders expressed concerned about the long term viability of the dairy industry. Looking to the future, there are many difficult issues facing continued and expanded milk production. These include housing pressures, generational transition, federal milk pricing, input costs, workforce, waste management, and state regulations. In an effort to understand better how these issues are playing out in northeast Ohio, OSU Extension was requested to conduct a survey of northeast Ohio dairy farms. This survey was mailed to 187 dairy producers in the spring of 2013. Eighty-one surveys were returned providing a 43.3% total response rate. Seventy-eight percent indicated they do not plan on leaving the dairy industry during the next five years. For the producers who responded they were thinking of exiting the dairy industry, the major reasons cited were: retirement with someone else taking over and shifting to other livestock or cash crops. Thirty-five percent of the farms indicated they would expand their operation which would increase the overall cow numbers by 6 percent. Participants were asked to select the facility improvements they plan on investing in over the next five years with the top three responses: housing for heifers, increasing cow comfort, and manure handling systems. They also listed the top three management improvements they anticipated to make over the same time period to be feed management, genetic improvement, and milking herd health management.
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Poster has NOT been presented at any previous NACAA AM/PIC
This poster is being submitted for judging. It will be displayed at the AM/PIC if not selected as a State winner. The abstract will be published in the proceedings.
A poster file has not been provided
Authors: D.L. Marrison
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Marrison, D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, Ohio, 44047