The joys and challenges of running a dairy farm
By Betty Jane Hunt, Special Writer
Imagine working 14-16 hour days six-seven days a week with much of it being hard manual labor and doing it because you enjoy it?
That is how brothers Fred and Rob Fulper describe their job, which is running the Fulper Dairy Farm.
Besides the long hours and hard work, these two visionary men enjoy seeing their cows produce well and growing good crops. By having the fifth highest producing dairy herd per cow in the state for the month of December and having won numerous field crop awards through the years, they have plenty to enjoy and of which to be proud.
They are responsible for 1,100 acres in and around West Amwell Township where they bale approximately 35,000 bales of hay and 18,000 bales of straw each year. They also make a lot of haylage (a grass crop that is cut, harvested and stored for feeding farm animals) and produce corn and soybeans for feed for their 120 dairy cows, 150 dairy young stock, and 50 beef cows. These animals all have to be fed and cared for 365 days a year, and the 120 cows have to be milked twice a day.
To keep all of this going, it takes lots of planning and help. Bob Fulper Sr., father of Fred and Rob, still works nearly full-time. Their longtime employee, Brad Gutschmidt, is the other full-time worker, who does most of the machinery repair and a lot of the field work. Rob Fulper’s wife, Cindy, does the bookkeeping on the cows, feeds the heifers, and helps with field work in the summer and fall. They also employ 10 part-time people. Five of them are family members and the fifth generation of Fulpers on this land (I will tell you more about them in a future article).
Fred and Rob have some division of labor. Fred takes responsibility for the calves and sees to it they get registered, vaccinated, and treated when sick. He also does equipment maintenance and hoof trimming. Routine equipment repair is very important because most pieces of machinery range in cost from $100,000 to as much as $300,000 for a combine. Routine hoof trimming is important to the overall health of the animals so they can get up and down and move around for more productive years.
Rob does most of the paperwork and keeps up on all the laws and regulations. He also manages the dairy breeding, nutritional program and crop rotation.
The Fulpers don’t buy a lot of cows. They have a good breeding program, which saves them money and provides their own high-producing dairy replacements. Rob said some additives to the feed help keep the cows healthy. He said they will cut corners to save money, but not where it jeopardizes the health of their animals. They have a roaster that roasts their corn and soybeans. This kills mold and possible disease-producing bacteria and saves them money in feed costs.
Fred and Rob agree that the two biggest problems with farming are weather and wildlife. While they can’t control the weather, there are some good improvements in seed that can help keep a crop from being a total loss. Rob said 2009 and 2010 were their two most challenging years ever: 2009 was the wettest year they ever had and 2010 was the driest growing season ever. They got half a crop, but only because of the new varieties and biotechnology. In 1980 with the same weather conditions, their crops would have been a total loss. According to Rob, when the leaves on the corn curl up, the leaves are trying not to get so much sun . . . which helps save the plant.
With new technology, however, comes an increase in cost for seed and fertilizer. A few years ago, it cost $200-$250 an acre for a corn crop. Now it costs $450-$500 per acre. To plant 100 acres, that’s $45,000-$50,000!
The other major problem is wildlife. They planted a 7-acre field in Hopewell Township a few years ago and the deer ate all of it. Fred and Rob say the state’s Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife discourage hunting with its many rules and fees, when, if fact, the state should be encouraging it. The state also should be finding ways for hunters to get the deer to local food pantries. Venison is a good, nutritious, fat-free meat that could go a long way toward feeding the hungry.
The Fulpers either have to find hunters or go out and hunt themselves. They said the deer are a problem in the summer and the geese are bad in the winter. They have a dog to scare the geese away, but it means getting in the truck and driving around to scare them away again and again. The time they have to spend on wildlife control could be used more productively in other areas of the farming operation.
The cost to produce 100 pounds of milk on the East Coast is $16.80. Dairy farmers are receiving about $16.50 per 100 pounds. Fortunately that is up from the $14 they got last year and the $12.50 in 2009. Because the Fulpers are diversified and sell some hay, straw, corn, soybeans and beef, and because their infrastructure is paid off, they were able to survive through the low milk prices. Dairy farmers have to be diversified, because the price they get for milk is out of their control and isn’t enough to pay bills and support a family.
The farmer only gets about 25 percent of what the consumer pays for milk in the store and that percentage keeps dropping. The Fulper cows produce approximately 8,000 pounds of milk per day. This multiplies out to 2,920,000 pounds per year. According to the American Dairy Association, the average person in the United States consumes 177 pounds of milk per year, 32.5 pounds of cheese, 11.8 pounds of yogurt, and 20.7 pounds of ice cream. The total amount of milk and dairy products consumed comes to about 242 pounds. According to my math, that means the Fulper cows produce enough milk to supply 12,066 people with their annual consumption of milk and dairy products — more than four times the number of people in West Amwell Township!
When asked why they stay in New Jersey, Fred and Rob agreed: “It’s home.”
New Jersey is over-regulated and the wildlife runs rampant, but there isn’t a utopia anywhere and at least the Fulpers know what they are dealing with here. As for having a successful farming operation, Rob said that making the most milk and having the best crops and products is “all in the details.”
In the case of the Fulpers, that’s true, but I would add: It is in their knowledge and hard work.
Betty Jane Hunt is a member of the West Amwell Township Agricultural Advisory Committee.

