Subsidies for Slaughtering Cows : 144 Dairy Owners Get $1 Million-Plus Each

A total of 144 U.S. dairy owners will receive more than $1 million each under the federal program that pays farmers to slaughter their cows in an effort to curb surplus production.

Topping the list of recipients is a large dairy investment partnership in Jerome, Ida., the Magic Valley Dairy Investment Group, which is due to receive nearly $10 million over the life of the program. Running a close second is the De Graaf Family Dairy outside Riverside, with anticipated payments of $9.8 million.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released the data Tuesday under a Freedom of Information request.

In all, five of the six largest payouts--each more than $5 million--will go to California dairy operators.

The third-highest payment, $8 million, is going to producer Joe Gonsalves of Kings County, Calif., and fourth is Wright’s Nassau County Dairy in California at $5.9 million.

Rounding out the top 10 recipients are John J. Casey, Stanislaus County, Calif., $6.5 million; Drifty Farms, San Bernardino, $5.1 million; Oasis Dairy Farms, Chaves County, N.M., $4.5 million; Henry A. Tavares, Merced, $3.9 million; Frank Samora, Kern County, Calif., $3.7 million; and P&P; Dairy, Bexar County, Tex., $2.8 million.

Nearly 9,000 dairymen across the country will get more than $50,000 each under the five-year, $1.8- billion program, the USDA records show.

Lion’s Share for State

Sightly more than half of the million-dollar-plus payments will go to California, the nation’s No. 2 dairy state (behind Wisconsin) and home of some of the nation’s largest dairy herds.

The largest number of payments over $50,000 for any state--1,091--was in Minnesota, which had no individual payments over a million dollars, reflecting the relatively small size of dairy operations in the No. 3 dairy state.

Brant Lierman, director of a USDA county office in Idaho administering the program there, said the Magic Valley partnership consists of three professionally managed dairy farms with a total herd of 2,000 cows. The dozens of partners don’t farm but use the operation as an investment vehicle, he said.

While most program participants are commercial dairies, at least two on the list are state universities: New Mexico State University will get $314,000 for selling off its 280 cows (which, ironically, had been used in research into increasing cows’ milk output), and Texas Tech at Lubbock, which will receive $79,000.

The controversial program, which pitted angry cattlemen, who receive no government assistance, against the subsidized dairy operators, is called the “whole-herd buyout.” Congress drew it up as part of the 1985 farm law enacted last December in an effort to cut overproduction in dairy products, which the government buys and stores under a commodity support program.

Production a Factor

As an incentive, the government paid dairy farmers according to their herds’ historical production--essentially buying up the rights to milk production over the five-year period. Fees were set through a bidding process in which farmers submitted a price that they would accept for going out of business.

About $650 million of the program’s cost is being paid through assessments against the production of the 186,000 commercial dairymen remaining in business.

The government in April accepted about 14,000 bids at a total cost of $1.8 billion, a level that would erase about 8% of U.S. milk production.

The government is spending another $400 million to help offset the impact on the beef market because of the increased cow slaughter. That payment came about only after cattlemen in California, Texas and elsewhere challenged the buyout program in federal court.

But the controversy lingers. California cattlemen earlier this month persuaded the 103,000-member California Farm Bureau Federation, the state’s largest organization of family farmers and ranchers, to oppose any further subsidized slaughtering and to encourage the government to phase out production subsidies.

The issue will be debated nationally next month, when the American Farm Bureau Federation meets in Anaheim to hammer out its national policies.

While the farm act authorizes the secretary of agriculture to carry out additional buyout programs, Secretary Richard Lyng is not expected to do so, according to farming experts in California and elsewhere. Instead, he is expected to begin ratcheting down price supports for milk to discourage overproduction.

Following is a list of all California dairy farms, and the counties in which they are located, that received more than $1 million each:

Daniel N. Cotta Dairy, Tulare, $1.6 million; Richard Johnson, Tulare, $1.9 million; Marvin Brommer, San Bernadino, $1.1 million; Henry A. Tavares, Merced, $3.9 million; Mrs. John X. Bettencourt, Tulare, $1 million; John W. Schouten, Riverside, $1.9 million; C.T. Schouten, Riverside, $1.9 million.

Also: Nicholas Schouten, Riverside, $1.9 million; David Hogg, San Bernadino, $1.5 million; Warren Hogg, San Bernadino, $1.5 million; Michael D. Bettencourt, Merced, $1.3 million; Josephine Soares, Stanislaus, $1.1 million; Edward Gomes, Merced, $1.9 million; Henry E. Gomes Jr., Stanislaus, $1.6 million.

Andrew Costa, San Joaquin, $1.1 million; Lawrence Serpa, Stanislaus, $1.3 million; Manuel L. Aguiar, Tulare, $1.3 million; Fernando Silva, San Joaquin, $1 million; Joseph Allen Leal, Tulare, $1.4 million; George Aguiar, Placer, $1.4 million; John Azevedo, Sacramento, $1 million; Arlo Prins, San Joaquin, $1.9 million; Virgil Cardoza, Tulare, $1.4 million; Joe E. Gonsalves, Kings, $8 million; J.F. Mendes, Kings, $1.2 million; Joaquin M. Aguiar III, Tulare, $1.3 million; Frank Silva, San Joaquin, $1 million; John S. Lema, Merced, $1.2 million; Fred Sherman Dairy, Merced, $1.7 million; William Hodge, San Diego, $1.8 million.

Wilbur E. Gomes, Merced, $2.4 million; David Bettencourt, Merced, $1.2 million; Luis M. Oliveira, $1.8 million; Joaquin M. Aguiar Jr., Tulare, $1.4 million; Henry Pareira Jr., San Joaquin, $1 million; Pete Boersma, San Bernadino, $1.6 million; Leo De Zoete, San Bernadino, $1.3 million; Manuel Silva, San Joaquin, $1 million; John Rocha Jr., Stanislaus, $1 million; Jones Creek Dairy, Santa Clara, $1 million; Frank Samora, Kern, $3.7 million; John J. Casey, Stanislaus, $6.5 million; Double M Dairy, Merced, $1.3 million; Ambrosini Bros., Fresno, $1.1 million; William Furtado, Santa Clara, $2.6 million.

C&M; Dairy, Fresno, $1.3 million; Farnsworth Bros., Merced, $1.3 million; Furtado Bros., Santa Clara, $1.3 million; Souza Bros., Norbert & Jerry, Merced, $1.5 million; A Bar Farms, Merced, $1.7 million; Mello Bros., Arnold & John, Merced, $1.2 million; Lloyd Pareira Dairy, Merced, $1.9 million; Minnie Corda, Marin, $1.4 million; Los Pasos Dairy, Santa Clara, $1.1 million; Furtado Barbosa, Santa Clara, $1.5 million; Jacob Kimm Dairy, Riverside, $1.1 million; Jim Nyenhuis, San Bernadino, $1.6 million; Drifty Farms, San Bernadino, $5.1 million; Xavier Aphessetche, San Bernadino, $1 million; Pete Manninga, San Bernadino, $1.2 million;

John Van Leeuwen, San Bernadino, $2.6 million; Case Zwart, San Bernadino, $1 million; Gene Hogg, San Bernadino, $1.5 million; Bart Van Dyk, San Bernadino, $1.5 million; Arthur Hettinga Dairy, Riverside, $1.3 million; James Heida, Riverside, $2 million; LBJ Dairy, San Bernadino, $1.8 million; W. Schurig Dairy, Riverside, $1.1 million; Dan Hollingsworth, Riverside $2.7 million; De Graaf Family Dairy, Riverside, $9.8 million; Pyrenees Dairy, San Bernadino, $1.3 million; Mortsen John Dairy, Santa Barbara, $1.3 million; F.D. Farms, San Bernadino, $1.9 million, and Triple T Dairy, San Bernadino, $1.9 million.