Left Behind: Farmers fight to save their land in rural Minnesota as trade war intensifies

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

LEFT BEHIND

Farmers fight to save their land in rural Minnesota as trade war intensifies

By Annie Gowen | Photos and video by Ricky Carioti Aug. 3, 2019

MONTGOMERY, Minn. — The feed chopper was the only machine Bob Krocak ever bought new, back when he was starting out as an ambitious young dairy farmer.

He used it to chop acres of alfalfa and corn to feed his herd of Holstein dairy cattle, which repaid him with some of the creamiest milk in Le Sueur County. The chopper and its fearsome blades lasted through four decades of cold winters, muddy springs and grueling harvests.

Now, on a chilly Saturday morning, Krocak, 64, was standing next to the chopper in the parking lot of Fahey Sales Auctioneers and Appraisers, trying to sell what he had always prized. The 128 Holsteins were already gone, sold last year when his family quit the dairy business after three unprofitable years.

Krocak needed the money to stave off bankruptcy and hold on to the land that has been in his family since 1888. Hundreds of other farmers around the country, grappling with rising debt, dismal commodity prices and the fallout of the Trump administration’s trade wars, are facing the same fate. Net farm income has dropped by nearly half in the past five years, from $123 billion to $63 billion.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/farm-bankruptcies-rise-as-trumps-trade-war-grinds-on/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Sure do

empathize with this Fellow. He was one of the last true small Dairy Guys south of the Twin City Metro. Hope he was able to raise enough funds to save his Land.

[riversedge]

2. so horrible what is happening.