Central Florida’s last big dairy farm squeezed by higher costs for feed, lower prices for milk.
The 600 or so dairy cows on Gerald Fieser's farm in DeLeon Springs do what they have always done: graze in the pasture, swat at bothersome flies with tufted tails, and twice a day make the trek to the barn for milking.
The pastoral setting harkens back to the time more than 50 years ago when his father bought the Volusia County farm. But the times have changed: Fieser's is now the last large dairy farm in Central Florida, and what used to be a cash cow is now bleeding red ink.
"Dairy farmers have probably lost from $500 to $1,000 per cow this year, and we've probably lost half a million — 20 years of equity and most of our savings," Fieser said. "We're starting over again."
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