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Beyond the Bulk Tank — For the 8,098th time: neither political party has protected small dairy producers. And before anyone turns this into another Republican-versus-Democrat fight, let’s deal in facts. According to USDA: • The United States lost 63% of its licensed dairy herds between 2004 and 2024—falling from 66,825 to just 24,811. • Between 2002 and 2022, the number of dairy farms with fewer than 1,000 cows declined, while the number with 1,000 cows or more increased by 60%. • The average dairy herd grew from 112 cows in 2000 to 283 cows in 2021. • In 1987, the midpoint dairy herd was only about 80 cows. By 2017, it had climbed to 1,300 cows. That means half of all milk was already coming from herds larger than 1,300 cows. Those numbers did not happen during one election cycle or under one political party. This consolidation unfolded over decades while Republicans and Democrats traded control of the White House, Congress, and USDA. Both parties watched it happen. Both parties continued praising “efficiency” and increased production. Both parties allowed policies and markets to keep rewarding expansion while smaller producers were told to become more efficient, grow larger, take on more debt, diversify, or quietly get out. But those USDA numbers do not show the whole cost. They don’t show the families who worked seven days a week and still lost farms that had survived for generations. They don’t show the retirement accounts drained, the marriages strained, the children who decided there was no future waiting for them, or the producers who began believing their failure was personal. They don’t show what happens to a rural community when the dairy closes, the feed store struggles, the veterinarian loses clients, the school loses families, and another farmhouse sits empty. We did not lose tens of thousands of dairy farms because tens of thousands of families suddenly forgot how to work. We lost them because the system increasingly rewards scale, market power, and access to capital—and treats independent producers as acceptable casualties. So no, I will not make this about defending Republicans. I will not make it about defending Democrats. I will make it about the people both parties left behind. This is not left versus right. This is independent producers versus a system that has been replacing them for decades. And neither party gets a free pass. Sources: USDA Economic Research Service, “Fewer Farms, More Milk: The Changing Structure and Costs of U.S. Dairy Farming” and “Consolidation in U.S. Agriculture Continues.”