Holding the land, losing the future [View all]

On a stretch of farmland in Shenandoah County, Sue Polk’s family is never far away.

Her son, his wife, her daughter and her son-in-law all live on the property, each couple in their own home, working together to keep the farming operation running. They share the burdens of running a small farm — milking nearly 200 cows, farming 750 acres and operating two poultry houses — but they also share its rewards, chief among them the close-knit bond that comes from building something together.

“Nobody’s gonna get rich around here, but they all come to my house every day for lunch, and they sit in here and they laugh,” Polk said. “They all get along good, and well, I hope it’s a future for them.”

But Polk, soon to be 69, and her husband, Harry Polk, turning 70, worry that future isn’t viable.

Their milking parlor, built in 1977, is outdated. Milking the herd takes four hours in the morning and four more in the evening. A new facility could cut that time in half — but would cost at least $1 million, an amount far out of reach without financial assistance. Even if they could justify the cost, expansion would require more cows, more feed and more land.

“Land is hard to find,” Polk said. “It’s hard to rent. Especially close by.”

The number of dairy farms in the region has plummeted. Polk estimates there may be fewer than five left as rising costs, land development pressures and the dominance of large-scale dairy operations make it harder for small farms to survive.

https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/holding-the-land-losing-the-future-farming-experts-say-federal-funding-freeze-threatens-small-shenandoah/article_869e5a13-e291-53f1-af0f-c7cbf8ae6d0c.html

And yet, just the other day, the orange slime advocated a "return to subsistence farming". As if he knew what that means......