TAMAQUA - Hannah Miller said her family's small dairy farm, which has been around for more than 150 years, makes "about $8,000" a month before expenses.
"It's a challenge. Our main expenses are feed, electric and fuel. Feed cost is at least $5,000 a month with the electricity bill being around $620," Hannah, 19, said Wednesday.
But she said mom-and-pop businesses like her family's Lil-Rus Farm along Dairy Road in West Penn Township have a place and a purpose in this ever-changing world.
"We have family values. Here there's a big emphasis on family and keeping money in the local economy. And we contribute to the local economy. We always give back," Hannah said Tuesday.
Perhaps the most important thing the average person can do to support the dairy industry is buy dairy products, Hannah, who was crowned the 2014-15 Schuylkill County Dairy Princess on May 4, said.
She encouraged everyone to celebrate National Dairy Month, which is June, by raising a glass of milk in a toast to dairy farmers. And she said the best way to learn about local farmers is to go right up and talk to them.
Hannah will be among the farmers at the 31st Schuylkill County Fair, which will be held July 28 to Aug. 2 at the fairgrounds in Summit Station. She'll be there with cows including her Holstein "Anastasia."
"She's now a 2-year-old. She's about 1,200 pounds," Hannah said of the cow.
"She'll probably have a calf in the next couple days," Hannah's mother, Christine Miller, said.
"And when the calves come out, they're about 100 pounds," Hannah said.
Hannah is the daughter of Russel H. Miller, who turned 70 on Thursday, and Christine, 60.
"I was on the farm from a baby on up. My dad pretty much baby-sat me in the barn. I owned my first cow when I was 2, and I've been showing cows since I was 8," Hannah said.
Hannah is the youngest of five siblings. She has two brothers, Henry, 40, and Heath, 34, and two sisters, Heidi, 38, and Heather, 35.
Hannah is a 2013 graduate of Tamaqua Area High School. She's studying to be a nurse, working to earn an associate's degree at Lehigh Carbon Community College. From there, she's hoping to earn her bachelor's degree at Temple University, Philadelphia.
Lil-Rus Farm was started in the first half of the 19th century. Hannah said it's named after her father's parents, Russel T. Miller and Lillian Miller.
The family farm has barns at two locations, 758 and 892 Dairy Road. The family owns 212 acres and rents "at least 200 acres," according to Hannah's father.
"We grow 90 percent of our feed. We grow a total of around 290 acres with 130 of that being corn, 120 acres of hay and around 40 acres of oats. But we still buy corn distiller and soybean meal, which is extremely expensive. Feed prices have skyrocketed. We're fortunate that we grow so much," Hannah said.
They have 130 cows, including 60 milking cows. The farm sells its milk to Land O'Lakes Inc., Hannah said.
Like all farmers, dairy farmers face numerous challenges.
"Our government pretty much controls milk prices. It's always a big challenge for dairy farmers. In January, the milk price was down to $18 per hundredweight. Now we're up to $26 a hundredweight. That improved. But that improvement has only been for three months. It will drop back down. It keeps fluctuating. It depends on the world market," Hannah said.
"It's not a steady income. And you can't bank on 'you have this much milk and you're going to get this much money,' " Christine said.
There are 11.62 gallons of milk in 100 pounds, Hannah said.
"I would say that it would cost us at least $14.32 to produce 100 pounds," Hannah said.
Earlier this year, the federal government approved a new farm bill. And it offers the biggest reform of federal dairy policies in a generation, according to James "Jay" Howes, deputy secretary for Consumer Protection, Regulatory Affairs and Dairy Industry Relations at the state Department of Agriculture.
It scrapped a former subsidy program in favor of subsidized insurance that would pay farmers when the difference between milk and feed prices shrinks too much.
"Before we had a price trigger. When the actual whole milk price dropped to a certain level, the federal government would buy commodities off the market. Now we have subsidized insurance, the Margin Protection Program. And you can buy coverage at various margin levels," Howes said Thursday.
That program will be implemented by Sept. 1, Howes said.
"So the actual rule making from the FDA is not out yet," Howes said.
Hannah had some concerns.
"I think that the new bill may have its advantages, but I am a little afraid that small farmers will not be able to pay for high enough coverage if the feed costs do go up. If they have no money, how can they pay for high insurance to start out with? I'm a little concerned for those who do not have the money due to previous years of hardship," Hannah said.
To help dairy farmers, the state is developing a "web-based decision-making tool" regarding the new insurance program, Howes said.
"We don't want our farmers to be intimidated just because it's different. We want to make sure they have the tools to know how to use it and find what provisions are most appropriate for their farms," Howes said.
The link to that web-based tool will be on the state Department of Agriculture's website sometime this fall, Howes said.
Recent statistics regarding milk production can be found in the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture and the National Agriculture Statistics Service.
"The most recent data NASS has published is from 2011," William Nichols, a media representative at the state Department of Agriculture, Harrisburg, said Wednesday.
Pennsylvania's milk production for 2011 was 10.6 billion pounds, 133 million pounds less than 2010 production. The 2011 average milk production per cow was 19,601 pounds for the year, 246 pounds less than 2010 production of 19,847 pounds per cow.
Pennsylvania held steady at 5th place in the nation's ranking in milk production, producing 5.4 percent of the nation's milk. California was 1st with 21.1 percent of the U.S. production, according to the census and the National Agriculture Statistics Service.
In Schuylkill County in 2011, there were 3,500 milk cows which produced 56 million pounds of milk with a $12,376,000 production value, according to the census.
Hannah wasn't sure how many dairy farms there were in Schuylkill County when asked Tuesday but believed there were "less than 50."
In 2011, there were 54,711 dairy farmers in the nation; 7,829 in Pennsylvania; and 50 in Schuylkill County, according to the census and the National Agriculture Statistics Service.