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From The Front Porch
It’s April 17th and the smell of spring is in the air. The alfalfa fields are starting to green, oats, which was seeded only two weeks ago, is starting to sprout and the pastures are becoming greener every day. We have a very good crop of newborn baby calves, only one more month and the cows and their young will be put out to pasture for the summer. In the up coming month we will begin to prepare the fields for planting of corn and soybeans along with harvesting our first crop of alfalfa. Some of the topics, which we will touch on in this newsletter, are Vertical Integration and Lack of Competition in the Market Place. Vertical Integration ~ what is it and what does it do to the independent producer? Vertical Integration in the livestock industry is the ownership or control of the livestock by a single company or individual from the time the animal is born until the time it is sold to the consumer at the retail level. Vertical integration threatens the independent producer because there is no need for an independent producer if a company or individual has total control over the livestock. In a nutshell Vertical Integration slowly eliminates the need for an independent producer and gives total control to the vertically intergraded producer. Lack of Competition in the Market Place ~ Today we have four packers that control over 80% of the total steer and heifer slaughter in the United States with IBP being the largest of those packers. IBP is in partnership with Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in America- the largest in the world. With control of over 80% of the cattle slaughter some of these packers and retailers also have ownership of the livestock not only in the cattle but also in the pork, chicken, milk, and poultry industries. Vertical Integration and Lack of Competition in the Market Place work hand in hand to eliminate the independent producer, which has been the backbone of the livestock industry for many years. Many of us independent livestock producers are very concerned about these events and that is why Chalk Rock Lake Farms and others are looking for new alternatives to marketing our livestock and products. Danny Schaefer 
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A picture can say a thousand words and that is what the above picture of Mason and his Grandpa is all about. What we mean by that is passing on the farm from one generation to the next. We all have goals in life and one of the main goals of most farmers or for that matter anyone who is involved in a trade that is handed down from one generation to the next. We never know if the next generation will be interested in carrying on that trade but we hope we can pass it on if they are interested.
