If you’re involved in the dairy markets or policy either directly or indirectly, now is a fairly exciting time. After many years of task forces, forums, meetings and discussions, the fruit (or shall we say milk?) of the industry’s labor is the preliminary actions being taken by USDA to consider holding a Federal Milk Marketing Order hearing later this summer.
A quick recap of our last article: on March 28, both the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association (WCMA) submitted formal petitions to USDA for a federal order hearing to increase make allowances. In these original petitions, neither IDFA nor WCMA presented specific desired make allowance values, instead choosing to reference past studies (such as a 2021 Dr. Mark Stephenson cost-of-processing study) and ongoing Dairy Institute of California-based studies to inform future make allowance increases. USDA had 30 days (until April 29) to issue an action plan to complete a hearing within 120 days, request additional information from IDFA and WCMA, or reject their requests. Organizations representing dairy farmers, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, Edge Dairy Cooperative, and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) all wrote letters objecting to the petitions submitted by IDFA and WCMA.
dairybusiness.com
June 27, 2023
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