National Milk Producers Federation

USDA’s final rule on defining Class I milk products was published in the Federal Register on August 24. The rule was originally published in the Federal Register on June 14 (with a technical correction issued on June 24), and was approved by producer referendum in all ten Federal Milk Marketing Orders.  read more»

In late July, the House Agriculture Committee approved the Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 2010, H.R. 5852, while the Senate Agriculture Committee approved an identical piece of legislation, S. 3656, in early August. The bills reauthorize mandatory price reporting programs run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for five years. Most importantly for the dairy sector, the bills include language authorizing mandatory weekly electronic reporting for dairy products.  read more»

Farm audits of the 194 dairies selected in the 2010 Herd Retirement have been completed. Participating producers are in the process of submitting the required documents substantiating that their cows have been sold to meat packing facilities. It is expected that all producers will have provided the necessary paperwork to CWT, and will have been paid by the end of September. The name and location of producers taken in this herd retirement are posted on the CWT website after they are issued the first 90% of their payments. The remaining 10%, plus interest, is paid twelve months after the farm audit, if neither the producer or facility become involved in producing and marketing milk during that period.  read more»

The House of Representatives and Senate must pass a new child nutrition authorization by September 30, 2010, or extend the current law for another year without changes to programs or funding.  read more»

Due to the recent high-profile recall of salmonella-tainted eggs, food safety issues have are likely to receive considerable attention from Congress this month. Even before the egg recall, the Senate was poised to move forward with a bipartisan bill, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), as soon as it returns from the summer break the week of September 13th. The Senate released its manager’s package in August, which can be found on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee website.  read more»

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) expressed great disappointment at the August 18th announcement by the Mexican government that it would impose tariffs of 20% to 25% on several major categories of U.S. exports to Mexico, including many cheeses. This action targeted shipments to largest U.S. export market for dairy products and included products such as Cheddar, Mozzarella, Gouda, Provolone, Colby, Monterey Jack, cream cheese, and many others.  read more»

On August 18th, NMPF submitted comments in support of EPA’s proposed compliance deadline extension for dairy producers for the Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations.  read more»

NMPF presented Dr. Kasey Moyes with the 2010 NMPF Richard M. Hoyt Award at the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, July 13. The NMPF Richard M. Hoyt Award was created to recognize research efforts with direct application to problems of the U.S. dairy industry.  read more»

Plans have been moving forward as NMPF prepares to travel to Reno, NV, for its joint Annual Meeting with the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (NDB) and the United Dairy Industry Association (UDIA). The meeting will take place October 26 – 28, 2010, at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino and center around the theme "Creating a Path to Prosperity."  read more»