USDA has released its recommendations for changes to the Federal Milk Marketing Order system. The recommendations cover a variety of issues discussed at length during the USDA hearing held last fall and early winter in Indiana.
The document is over 300 pages long and was released Monday afternoon. Some of the recommendations from USDA include adjusting milk composition factors, including protein from 3.1% to 3.3%, other solids from 5.9% to 6.0%, and nonfat solids from 9.0% to 9.3%. USDA’s Ag Marketing Service also proposes removing 500-pound barrel cheese prices from the Dairy Product Mandatory Reporting Program survey and just use the 40 pound cheddar block price to determine the monthly average cheese price in the formulas. AMS also proposed raising the Class III and Class IV make allowances for cheese, butter, nonfat dry milk, dry whey, and butterfat recovery.
Many dairy stakeholders are still reviewing the USDA proposals before commenting, including American Farm Bureau Federation, Wisconsin Farm Bureau, and the American Dairy Coalition. One thing stakeholders are looking at very closely is the question of which farmers will get to vote on the final package. Laurie Fischer with the American Dairy Coalition is concerned, because the rule would bar producers from voting unless their milk is pooled in the federal order. Some estimates put more than 30% of milk outside of the marketing pool, and Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative CEO Tim Trotter told Brownfield most of that 30% is in Federal Order #30, which covers most of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
July 1, 2024
By Larry Lee
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