SNOHOMISH — Would-be bidders huddled in thick jackets, hands thrust deep into pockets to shield themselves from the cold, gray drizzle.
At times, a chorus of cows mooed in the background.
This was the end of the Bartelheimer Brothers dairy, as the fourth-generation farm’s 800 cows went up for auction. Throngs of potential buyers traipsed through feed alleys Tuesday, where they could bid on pens of Holsteins. Later, they got a shot at buying tractors and other farm equipment.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to drive around the corner and put you in the milk-cow business,” auctioneer Chad Lowry said from atop a flatbed truck.
The Bartelheimers had been dairy farming in Snohomish County for nearly a century. The farm east of Snohomish where the auction took place has been in the family for 70 years.
The cows will be gone by Monday — the deadline for buyers to pick them up.
The closure of the family’s business is just the latest loss for the dairy industry in Snohomish County. There were 111 dairies in the county in 1980; only 27 remain.
Jason Bartelheimer said his family decided to fold so they could pay off their debts before his father, Dale, retired. They still hope to lease their 500 acres so farming will continue there.
“The cows that were good quality brought decent money,” Jason Bartelheimer said. “It went well, given the current economic status.”
The auction was divided into sections by the cows’ age, classification and breeding. The top price was $1,540 for second- and third-lactation cows, while some older animals fetched just $650. The quality shows up in selectively bred characteristics, including udders, feet, milk production and longevity.
Toppenish Livestock Commission conducted the auction. The company sells more than 100,000 cattle per year, said John Top, one of the owners.
“This is a well-bred set of cows,” Top said. “These people have invested a great deal of time and money in a good herd of cattle here.”
That wasn’t just auctioneer’s talk, said several people in the crowd.
“The quality’s really good,” said John Van Dam of Salem, Ore., who admired the cows but came to buy equipment.
Potential buyers came from in-state, including a contingent from Whatcom County. Others hailed from Idaho, Oregon and Colorado, or came to buy for farms in Canada.
Last year, Washington had 460 dairy farms and 243,000 dairy cows, according to the Washington Dairy Products Commission, a Lynnwood-based industry group. The state ranked 10th nationally in milk production, with the average Washington cow producing 2,688 gallons of milk per year.
Until recently, the number of dairies in the state had been falling dramatically. While their numbers have plummeted by more than two-thirds since 1980, the number of cows and the amount of milk produced in Washington have risen.
The state has two big pockets of dairies. Whatcom County has the highest number of farms, about 150, and Yakima County the highest number of cows, more than 90,000.
“The numbers I see are a little more than half the farms on the west side, and a little more than half the cows on the east side” of the state, said Jay Gordon, an Elma dairy farmer who is the executive director of the lobbying group Washington State Dairy Federation.
The number of farms remained almost the same statewide during the past two years, despite low prices for milk and other economic hardships.
“I’m not sure why, other than we have really tough farmers left,” Gordon said. “The farms that are here are dairymen who really want to be in the business.”
About two years ago economic factors combined to wallop the local dairy industry especially hard.
The dollar started to strengthen, causing U.S. exports to cost more. At the same time, dairies in Australia and New Zealand started recovering from drought and upped their production. Also, the European Union put more subsidized export products on the market.
All of that dried up the export market for U.S. milk products in Asia and pushed milk prices into the basement during 2009.
Gordon credited Snohomish County’s residents and political leaders with doing their best to help local dairies.
“The enthusiasm I see in Snohomish County is really nice,” he said.
At the Bartelheimer auction, auctioneers and buyers worked their way down feed alleys, sloshing through mud as cows were sold pen by pen. Peeling yellow paint and rusted-out corrugated metal walls showed the ravages of age on surrounding buildings.
“The Bartelheimers had an awfully nice set of cows and I’m sure they’ll be nice for you,” Lowry, the auctioneer, told the crowd, as the livestock sale neared its end.
Then they moved on to the equipment, where there were deals to be had.
Anyone looking for a manure injector could have landed a bargain. The piece of equipment, used for putting liquid manure into the soil, went for $1,250.
A mammoth-size yellow John Deere 6246 fetched $27,500.
“Boy, there’s a nice machine now,” Lowry said.
There was some good news for the closing family farm, with equipment meeting minimum bids and high-quality cows commanding respectable prices.
That still left Jason Bartelheimer’s wife, Heather, with mixed feelings.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “It really is.”
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