Author: Alan Bjerga

NMPF’s Bjerga on H5N1, Farm Bill

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Executive Vice President for Communications & Industry Relations Alan Bjerga speaks on RFD-TV about dairy farmer challenges and their broader relationship with agriculture, ranging from H5N1 in dairy cattle to discussions of the 2024 Farm Bill in Washington. Success across all fronts will require communication and collaboration across agricultural sectors, he said. Meanwhile, NMPF is optimistic regarding the future of milk pricing, with a USDA plan on Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization expected within the next few weeks.

https://www.rfdtv.com/from-farm-bill-to-hpai-what-is-dairy-farmer-sentiment-looking-like

 

Work Continues to Strengthen Supply Chains

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

Tony Rice Headshot

By Tony Rice, Director, Trade Policy, National Milk Producers Federation

America’s dairy producers rely on a global supply chain that is reliable, transparent, and predictable to thrive in the competitive global dairy market — a reality made apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when supply chain snarls created headaches for dairy and the entire global economy.

But while many pandemic-era export issues have eased, an emerging threat to secure, reliable U.S. rail shipping is worsening.

Organized crime groups are increasingly breaking into shipping containers headed from the Midwest to West Coast ports in search of high-value consumer products. That’s creating serious food safety issues and forcing exporters to return the cargo at a financial loss, with limited recourse for insurance claims.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), in collaboration with the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), is tackling the issue on two fronts. Exporters experiencing break-ins are being connected with relevant railroads to determine best practices to mitigate theft, including lock and tracking recommendations. Meanwhile, NMPF is engaged with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Surface Transportation Board, Homeland Security Investigations, and rail police forces to identify options to heighten policing efforts and best practices for reporting break-ins. NMPF and USDEC are also pursuing new appropriations funding for a Homeland Security task force dedicated to addressing supply chain theft, with language specific to agricultural cargo.

Encouragingly, the Biden Administration is implementing new guardrails to prevent dairy exporters from having to deal with the sorts of record costs, unprecedented fees, and unpredictable shipping schedules that occurred during the pandemic.

That work started two years ago when NMPF fought hard to help shape and pass into law the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, which mitigated unfair and harmful carrier practices. The law’s far-reaching nature has resulted in a lengthy and deliberative implementation process — one to which NMPF has dedicated almost two years of engagement to ensure the rules are fair for dairy exporters.

That work paid off when the Federal Maritime Commission’s final rule on detention and demurrage billing practices took effect May 28. The rule reflects official recommendations from NMPF and USDEC, including important clarity on who should be billed, the time frames for billing, and a streamlined dispute process.

In tandem with upcoming rulemaking from the maritime commission on what determines a carrier’s unreasonable refusal to deal or negotiate, these statutes will bring much-needed stability to what has been a difficult shipping market to navigate. These developments are especially timely given the potential disruptions that a full reopening of the Red Sea would have on sailing schedules, as well as ongoing East Coast port labor negotiations.

While there are many moving pieces in shipping legislation, NMPF is engaging with Congress on two critical new bills. The bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act would update supply chain data standards, and the Ocean Carrier Rail Storage Charges Act is a bill to clarify jurisdictional gaps between the Surface Transportation Board and the Federal Maritime Commission regarding fees oversight.

As dairy exporters navigate uncertain waters, NMPF and USDEC remain dedicated to supporting a resilient and secure supply chain. The work continues to ensure that U.S. dairy exporters continue to thrive in a dynamic global market.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on June 13, 2024.

FARM Biosecurity helps protect dairy’s future

Posted on by Alan Bjerga
By Miquela Hanselman
Director of Regulatory Affairs, National Milk Producers Federation

Biosecurity may be more top-of-mind than ever in dairy herds in light of how industry practices are changing in reaction to the presence of the H5N1 virus in dairy cows. The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Biosecurity Program has resources that can support dairy farmers as they face evolving animal care challenges.

The FARM Program launched its Biosecurity Program in 2021 via a cooperative agreement with the USDA National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response program. FARM Biosecurity builds on the existing FARM Animal Care Program and Secure Milk Supply (SMS) Plan, providing resources focused on protecting cattle and employee health.

The program includes both everyday biosecurity practices as well as enhanced biosecurity resources. The FARM Everyday Biosecurity Program focuses on preventing disease introduction and spread by building on the good husbandry practices dairy farmers have long included in animal care. Everyday biosecurity practices protect against common diseases like contagious mastitis, respiratory infections, and scours.

Enhanced biosecurity brings the practices developed under the SMS Plan into the FARM program. Though FARM Enhanced Biosecurity was developed to help ensure continuity of business during a foot and mouth disease outbreak, the concepts can help protect against other known disease threats, such as the current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in dairy cattle.

Take steps now

We are still learning about how HPAI virus spreads among cattle, with more information expected as testing ramps up and federal agencies begin isolating data patterns. Below are some every day and enhanced biosecurity focus areas that help against the spread of many known diseases in cattle. These measures may also help prevent HPAI virus exposure to cattle and the people who care for them. Great first steps are identifying a line of separation, limiting animal movement as much as possible, using premovement testing, and having logs of visitors, deliveries, and animal movements.

Protecting the dairy from exposure:

  • Minimize access of wild birds to cattle and their environment.
  • Manage movements of cattle and their transport.
  • Limit livestock contact to essential people.

Preventing cattle or calf exposure:

  • Avoid feeding raw colostrum or milk to calves, cattle, and other mammals.
  • Follow good milking practices.
  • Separate new or returning animals and isolate sick animals.
  • Sanitize milking equipment after use with new, returning, or sick cattle.

Precautions for animal caretakers:

  • Avoid consuming unpasteurized (raw) milk and cheeses from suspect or confirmed HPAI cattle.
  • Wear protective gear covering the eyes, nose, mouth, and hands when contacting infected animals, carcasses, milk, or manure.

The enhanced biosecurity prep guide and online training include key biosecurity concepts that can be used during the H5N1 outbreak.

Good biosecurity takes time and practice to be effective, but as current challenges show, more attention to it will be critical to our industry today and tomorrow. Building everyday practices into your routine and having an enhanced biosecurity plan can protect your animals, employees, and business from disease threats.

Visit nationaldairyfarm.com to learn more about biosecurity and access resources, and visit nmpf.org/hpai for the latest updates on HPAI in cattle.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on June 3, 2024.

Farm Bill Frameworks Share Common Ground

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Paul Bleiberg

Executive Vice President, Government Relations, National Milk Producers Federation

After two years of hearings, listening sessions, and discussions, members of Congress are now making 2024 Farm Bill proposals. House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, R-PA, and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, both began the month by releasing their initial farm bill framework documents and priorities.

Even a quick glance at them shows the two proposals have real differences. But they also share many similarities — and that’s especially true for dairy.

Dairy farmers continue to support the Dairy Margin Coverage program enacted in the 2018 Farm Bill. It has performed effectively for producers during challenging periods, and it’s a vast improvement over its predecessors. Both farm bill frameworks extend the program, including its discount option for those farmers who lock in coverage for five years. Just as important is an update to the program’s production history calculation to compensate producers based on more recent milk production. This is an area of common ground that builds on last year’s one-year farm bill extension.

Both proposals also have overlap in their natural resource programs, recognizing that voluntary, producer-led conservation programs are effective but oversubscribed. In that context, both committee chairs recommend using the new conservation funds enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to build baseline, ensuring these greater resources will remain available for years to come. Common ground also exists when it comes to maintaining the 50% of funding for livestock set aside with the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which will allow dairy farmers to continue their ongoing sustainability work.

Looking overseas, both chambers include valuable provisions to counter harmful trade barriers by establishing a robust new process for safeguarding common food and beverage names in international markets. Both the House and Senate plans provide additional resources for animal health programs that protect farmers from animal diseases, a matter that’s gained urgency with the current U.S. H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle. Finally, both bills continue the enduring connection between agriculture and nutrition, forgoing misguided proposals to separate the producer safety net from essential nutrition programs that are a key lifeline to families and households nationwide.

Each farm bill is unique, and so are the roads taken to complete them. But the House and Senate Agriculture Committee chairs have both taken vital first steps, and we are also pleased that Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman, R-AR, plans to release his farm bill framework in short order. These proposals all pave the way for the work that will need to be done to arrive at one bipartisan, bicameral measure that can be signed into law. Dairy stands ready, as always, to be a force for common ground to help get the job done.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on May 20, 2024.

NMPF’s Yeiser Stepp Talks Biosecurity Best Practices

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

Emily Yeiser Stepp, Executive Director of the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program, discusses best practices in biosecurity as dairy farmers navigating a new federal order on testing and interstate animal movement in an interview with the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. “We still don’t know a lot about this virus and are taking action to limit that risk of virus spread, not only to protect our own dairy herds but also those poultry facilities that are being impacted, as well as protecting our dairy workers,” Yeiser Stepp said.

USDA Decision Time Nears for FMMOs

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Peter Vitaliano, Vice President, Economic Policy & Market Research, NMPF

The April 1 deadline for interested parties to submit post-hearing briefs summing up their arguments for changes to the Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO) has passed. Now that participants in USDA’s record-length FMMO hearing having had their final say, it’s time for USDA to review the complete hearing record and formulate its recommended decision, which should be reported around July 1.

The National Milk Producers Federation offered by far the most comprehensive and constructive set of proposals for effecting long-overdue updates to the federal order pricing formulas. Our brief reemphasized that updating formulas to reflect the dynamically changing structure of the U.S. dairy industry is critically important for the order program to achieve its basic purposes of ensuring an adequate supply of milk for fluid milk use, promoting orderly marketing, and providing adequate prices to dairy farmers for doing so. NMPF’s five specific proposals put farmers first, in keeping with the FMMO mission. They also have very broad support from groups and individuals representing dairy farmer interests.

By contrast, the major hearing participants representing processors opposed most of the hearing’s 21 proposals, including NMPF’s proposals to raise the Class III and Class IV skim milk component composition factors, remove barrel cheese from the protein component price formula, and update the Class I differentials to reflect current costs of supplying milk for fluid processing. Advocacy by proprietaries focused primarily on just two issues: the particularly high profile matters of the make allowances and the Class I mover.

While all parties to the hearing broadly agreed that the make allowances in the orders’ component pricing formulas need to be updated in stages — due largely to how much current costs likely exceed the current make allowances — hearing participants significantly disagreed on specifically how to do so. NMPF and its member cooperatives argued that USDA needs to have the authority and the directive to conduct regular mandatory, audited studies of manufacturing costs and yield factors so the industry, and dairy farmers in particular, can have confidence that the numbers are truly accurate — certainly more accurate than the voluntary cost studies that have more holes than Swiss cheese. All parties support mandatory studies, which almost certainly will be included in the upcoming farm bill. But proprietary manufacturer interests have requested that substantial increases, based only on voluntary studies, be fully implemented with a relatively short phase-in period, a move that would significantly harm dairy farmer incomes.

NMPF and other parties representing dairy farmer interests also universally support returning to the “higher of” Class I mover, a position equally strongly opposed by proprietary processor interests. No one supports the current “average of” mover, with its 74-cent per hundredweight fixed factor, but proprietary interests lined up behind keeping the average of mechanism with an adjustable factor that would mimic, with considerable lags, the higher of mover. This approach, done in the name of improving risk management, unfortunately mutes the immediate market signals the higher of approach sends. It also offers cold comfort to dairies that might go out of business because of a lower mover and don’t have the lag time to wait for a make-up adjustment later.

A low point in the hearing from the standpoint of farmer interests was reached when a group of proprietary fluid processors pushed back against NMPF’s carefully worked out proposal to increase the Class I differentials by proposing instead to eliminate the fixed portion of the current ones, which would effectively erase any difference between Class I and the manufacturing class prices in many orders and render them unworkable. It garnered no support from any other party.

But for all the controversy seen thus far, soon it will all be superseded by USDA’s plan. NMPF remains hopeful that careful thinking and attention to the purpose and mission of federal orders carries the day. We’re confident in a positive outcome.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on April 15, 2024.

FARM Biosecurity Program Outlines HPAI Prevention and Security

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management, or FARM Program, is the U.S. dairy’s on-farm national social responsibility program. One of its important parts is on-farm biosecurity. Emily Yeiser-Stepp, executive director of the National Dairy FARM Program, says biosecurity is more important than ever after the recent outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in dairy cattle herds

NMPF’s Doud Discusses HPAI, FMMO Modernization

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud discusses dairy’s response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the path forward for Federal Milk Marketing Order Modernization through an approach that puts farmers first, and opportunities for dairy in global markets. Doud spoke in an interview with the Agriculture of America podcast.

 

Pushing for Lower Tariffs Worldwide

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

Jaime Castaneda HeadshotBy Jaime Castaneda, Executive Vice President, Policy Development & Strategy, National Milk Producers Federation

Exports are critical to America’s dairy farmers and processors. Last year, the American dairy industry exported $8.1 billion in dairy products, roughly 17% of total U.S. milk production. That’s the second-best year on record, falling just short of 2022.

As global demand for high-quality and sustainably-produced dairy products will grow, the U.S. dairy industry must keep exports expanding to thrive today and over the long term. To help encourage that, and in the absence of efforts by the U.S. government to secure new market openings, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) have taken the initiative to drive forward projects to pursue Most-Favored Nation (MFN) tariff reductions in multiple key export markets.

U.S. dairy’s quarter-century of export expansion hasn’t been by chance. The strong commitment from U.S. dairy producers and manufacturers to investing in painstakingly growing international sales, coupled with multiple trade agreements that opened the door for that growth to occur, are key drivers of the trend. Unfortunately, in recent years, anti-trade rhetoric has gained momentum from politicians on both sides of the aisle. Meanwhile, major competitors — namely in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand — have successfully negotiated new market access, advantaging their domestic producers through lower tariff rates and favorable trading conditions. The result is that U.S. producers are increasingly at a disadvantage in several key markets, including China and most countries in Southeast Asia.

MFN tariffs are tariff rates that one country applies to imports from all trading partners that are members of the World Trade Organization. Importantly, MFN tariffs do not apply to products that benefit from even lower rates due to preferential trade agreements, such as a free trade agreement or customs union.

Not content to yield key markets to trade competitors, NMPF and USDEC launched a formal initiative in 2014 to lower duties on U.S. dairy exports in China. Following years of engagement, that resulted in a tariff cut on U.S. cheese exports. A few years later in 2019, NMPF and USDEC’s efforts scored another breakthrough by securing tariff reductions on a variety of exported dairy products into Vietnam.

Halfway around the globe, NMPF and USDEC tallied a small victory in March by successfully petitioning the United Kingdom government to eliminate its 6% tariff on fat-filled milk powder for at least two years.

NMPF and USDEC are continuing to pursue MFN tariff cuts in other key markets around the globe as well, with an emphasis on the growing Asian region, even as government initiative is lacking.

For example, the Philippines is a sizable dairy importer, using those inputs in the Philippine food processing and food service sectors. NMPF and USDEC have impressed upon the Philippine government the advantages of diversifying its dairy supply chains further and are petitioning for MFN tariff reductions for a variety of products, including cheese, lactose, and milk powder.

Although these initiatives by NMPF and USDEC cannot fully replace government negotiation of new trade agreements, efforts to drive down tariffs in these countries represent just a few examples of the markets that NMPF and USDEC are prioritizing as they continue to fight for fair opportunities for U.S. dairy producers and companies to compete in the global market.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on April 4, 2024.

Dairy’s building a better environmental tool

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Nicole Ayache, Chief Sustainability Officer, National Milk Producers Federation

The Farmers Assuring Responsible Management Environmental Stewardship Program (FARM ES) is collaborating with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy to integrate a new, process-based model for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting: the Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) model. This rigorous, science-based (but user friendly) approach will position FARM ES as the key on-farm tool to support U.S. dairy community efforts to achieve its 2050 environmental stewardship goals, including to become GHG neutral or better. FARM ES is the U.S. dairy industry’s unified platform to track and aggregate on-farm environmental progress, with a suite of informational resources to support continuous improvement.

FARM ES will begin using RuFaS as its underlying GHG quantification model starting this summer with Version 3. This introductory launch will contain the core elements of the RuFaS model to enable farm-level GHG footprinting and scenario analyses, which help support informed decision-making about the adoption of practices and technologies. Further elements — like enhancements to the energy data inputs and conducting economic analyses — will be added to FARM ES as they become available through ongoing RuFaS research.

A key focus of the remainder this year will be to collect farmer, FARM evaluator, and other stakeholder feedback so the new platform can be refined in 2025.

Real-world refinement

The FARM Program relies on stakeholder feedback and guidance from the scientific experts at Dairy Management Inc. to guide its process of continuous improvement. Input from dairy farmers, cooperative and processor staff, and researchers informed the need to upgrade the GHG model that powers FARM ES. Stakeholders consistently requested a tool that can deliver insights as they evaluate opportunities to further improve on-farm environmental outcomes.

Stakeholder engagement and participatory research continue to be essential as FARM ES begins the work to integrate the RuFaS model. A working group composed of farmers and staff from dairy cooperatives and processors meet with RuFaS researchers to discuss the scientific model and tool functionality. The multi-stakeholder working group has met seven times so far, covering the animal, manure, feed, energy, and economic RuFaS modules and giving feedback on the structure of data inputs, desired functionality for the new FARM ES tool, and more.

More than 25 farms volunteered to participate in scientific model validation to support RuFaS calibration and refinement, with data collection complete in 2023. The volunteer farms ranged in size from 50 head to over 15,000 head and represent diverse geographies and production styles, including tie stalls, freestalls, dry lost, grazing, and more. The farms and the evaluators that supported their data collection were invited to provide written feedback and join live feedback sessions. They provided helpful guidance on topics such as ease and challenges in collecting and interpreting the data inputs, quality of data collection training in fully equipping evaluators, and the structure of the results report.

With the introduction of FARM ES Version 3, FARM will create feedback forms for farmers and FARM evaluators to provide suggestions. FARM also will host stakeholder webinars to foster discussion about the new platform.

This summer’s launch will bring exciting updates to FARM ES. They are only the beginning of the journey toward a more scientifically robust tool that brings greater insights to participating dairy farmers.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on March 18, 2024.

NMPF’s Castaneda Discusses WTO, India, CWT

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Executive Vice President Jaime Castaneda discusses efforts to expand dairy market access at recent World Trade Organization meetings in Abu Dhabi in an interview with the Red River Radio Network. Castaneda also discusses trade relations with India and the importance of the NMPF-led Cooperatives Working Together program for the future of U.S. dairy exports.

The Class I Mover Needs to Move

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Paul Bleiberg, Executive Vice President, Government Relations, NMPF

Even as an election looms on the horizon, USDA will soon develop its Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) modernization recommendations after months of proceedings. Meanwhile, Congress is preparing to advance a farm bill. U.S. dairy farmers and their cooperatives have a stake in both. But regardless of the policy landscape of the moment, one pressing priority that unites producers from coast to coast in every way, shape, and form is the need to restore the “higher of” Class I mover.

Since it was implemented five years ago, the current “average of” Class I mover has cost dairy farmers nationwide more than $1 billion in Class I skim revenue, with losses continuing to pile up monthly. This, of course, was not intended — but neither were the repeated price inversions that upended decades of data and showed the new mover is poorly adapted to dairy’s present and future in a variety of economic climates.

Congress changed the mover during the last farm bill to respond to fluid processor requests for risk management, but that was with the expectation that it would be revenue neutral for the dairy producer. Unfortunately, the new mover has been anything but revenue neutral, and it’s been so in a way that has overwhelmingly favored processors, who are not the epicenter of the FMMO system. The new mover has underperformed repeatedly, to the detriment of dairy farmers, in 2020, 2022, 2023, and again, month by month, in 2024. The current formulation has harmed farmers so consistently that it would have been nowhere close to revenue neutral even setting aside the calamity of 2020.

In an attempt to remedy an intolerable situation (everyone, even processors, agrees on that point, at least), several concepts have been put forth that are bandages to the problem but aren’t true solutions. Modifying the current formula, for example, to retroactively recoup producer losses would still fail to send timely price signals to farmers. The argument that this modified version would have paid more to farmers at some point just yet again exposes the problem with the “average of,” which is that it causes farmers to suffer losses when they should have been paid based on market signals and instead distorts the true market by paying them back later. That approach also provides little help to the many family dairy producers who don’t have years to be made whole, a fact underscored forcefully by continued trends toward farm consolidation.

The solution to this problem comes down to priorities. The current mover may have been a fair experiment to test, but with its performance now having been assessed, continuing the “average of” formulation can be to nothing except the detriment of dairy farmers who have lost more than $1 billion dollars of ongoing disorderly marketing of milk.

The right solution is the previous “higher of” mover. That tried-and-true approach, one that served farmers well for decades, responds quickly to and accurately reflects the marketplace, encouraging the orderly marketing of milk that provides the rationale for the FMMO system, and it helps dairy farmer cash flow when it counts. The “higher of” Class I mover must be reinstated.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on March 4, 2024.