[Burnin' oil]

Some things just suck.

He's in his late forties, Portuguese, barely speaks English. I understand about 10% of what he says, but he and his family are great neighbors. He worked his butt off to buy a herd and then bought the dairy next door. Started to build up his herd and was excited about his hard work paying off. Then, in Feb. of this year, his milk buyer imposed a quota which was a little more than half of what he was producing. Bottom line - he ended up being charged back for over-production, had no income for several months, was dumping 400 gallons of milk a day and still had to pay to feed his whole herd. He started selling cows and cutting production but he could not recover. All his cows are gone and I think he's walking away from the property.

Talking to him about it is like watching a documentary. Broken English, tears in his eyes, talking about the American dream, working hard, sacrificing, and then getting everything taken away because of a milk glut and incredibly high feed prices. Complete discouragement. Merry Christmas to him.