April was an active month for the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program. A total of 23 bids were accepted totaling 3,314 metric tons (7.306 million pounds) of cheese sold to ten different countries.

For the first four months of 2011, CWT assisted member cooperatives in making export sales totaling 12,328 metric tons (27.2 million pounds) to 17 countries on three continents.

CWT continues to solicit both cooperatives and individual producers for membership in CWT for 2011 and 2012. The modest two cent assessment will not begin until 75% of the eligible milk supply is signed up to participate. For a list of cooperatives currently committed to CWT, visit www.cwt.coop.

The leading national trade organizations representing dairy producers and processors sent a letter last month to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, urging him to oppose legislation in the state senate that would allow the direct sale of raw milk to the public.

In the letter from the dairy associations, which was also sent to State Senate Democratic Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) said that the food safety risks inherent in raw milk will increase the incidence of foodborne illness and reverse public heath improvements in New Jersey.

“The link between raw milk and foodborne illness has been well-documented in the scientific literature, with evidence spanning nearly 100 years. Raw milk is a key vehicle in the transmission of human pathogens, including E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella,” the letter said.

The joint letter pointed out that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that “nearly 90% of raw milk-associated outbreaks have occurred in states where sale of raw milk was legal. Legalizing the sale of raw milk in New Jersey increases the risk to public health, opening up the State’s consumers to the inevitable consequence of falling victim to a foodborne illness.”

Federal law prohibits the interstate sale of raw milk, but allows states individual discretion to regulate raw milk sales within their borders. Several states in recent years have considered expanding the sale of raw milk, even as the product has been repeatedly linked to serious illnesses from coast to coast. The bill in New Jersey’s statehouse is Assembly Bill No. 743.

NMPF’s President and CEO Jerry Kozak, whose professional career started in Trenton when he worked for the State Department of Health, wrote in the letter that “it is disappointing to see that the public health gains we achieved in New Jersey in the 1970s would be compromised today by a conscious effort to allow the sale of potentially pathogenic foods. This is an affront to all those working to protect public health.”

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) hailed the recent release by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) of proposed details for the phased implementation of a long-haul, cross-border trucking program between the United States and Mexico, a program that the department says emphasizes safety, while satisfying international obligations of the United States.

In a letter to House Speaker Boehner, House Minority Leader Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid and Senate Minority Leader McConnell, NMPF and USDEC urged all members of Congress to support swift progress towards putting in place an agreed-upon resolution so that the retaliatory tariffs can be lifted and trade can be normalized in Mexico, the number one export market for U.S. dairy products.

The trucking program is crucial to the U.S. dairy sector, since many U.S. cheese exports have been subjected to legally-imposed retaliatory tariffs by Mexico since last August. As a result, shipments of the targeted cheeses fell by 60 percent between August 2010 and February 2011, the latest month of available data.

The DOT announcement represents the first critical step towards resolution laid out by Presidents Obama and Calderon in early March. As DOT reaffirmed today, the plan calls for a 30-day comment period once the Federal Register Notice is published this week, followed by a period of approximately 30 days for DOT to assess comments. Subsequently, DOT will publish a Final Federal Register Notice addressing comments received and describing the implementation process of the project. Once a final agreement is signed—estimated to take place in approximately 60 days—Mexico will suspend its retaliatory tariffs on all products by 50 percent and then will suspend the remaining 50 percent when the first Mexican carrier is approved to cross the border.

Valued at $837 million last year, Mexico is the largest dairy export market for the U.S. Making the most of this market, as well as others around the world, is vital to supporting the dairy producer community.

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) applauded an announcement last month that the Obama Administration and Colombia have reached an agreement on an action plan that will help to move forward the long-stalled Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the U.S. and Colombia.

“NMPF strongly supports all three pending FTAs – including the one with Colombia – and it is exciting to see the White House take a step closer to advancing each of them,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “Dairy producers are looking to expand our export opportunities wherever possible and hope that this signals that we will soon see the Colombia FTA, as well as the vitally important Korea and Panama FTAs, submitted for Congressional approval.”

“Our industry has been eager to see this FTA move forward with an important Latin American ally and growing market for dairy products,” said Tom Suber, president of USDEC. “U.S. dairy exports to Colombia are currently greatly limited by tariffs that exceed 90% for many products of significance to us. We are eager to work with the Administration to help move this FTA to implementation in order to knock down these tariffs blocking greater U.S. dairy sales.”

NMPF estimates that the U.S.-Colombia FTA would deliver, on average, an additional $25 million a year in benefits to U.S. dairy producers during the phase-in period of the agreement. Both organizations urged the Administration to move swiftly to seek Congressional approval of the U.S.-Colombia FTA, as well as the FTAs with South Korea and Panama, given the strong benefits for the U.S. dairy industry in each agreement.

The time has arrived for dairy producers and others in the industry to head to Omaha, NE, for the National Dairy Producers Conference, taking place next week from May 15 – 17 at the Embassy Suites Hotel.

Participants signed up for the optional farm tour on Sunday will have the opportunity to visit Butler County Dairy in Surprise and the Archer Daniels Midland Company ethanol plant in Columbus. After a welcome reception and dinner on Sunday, the general program kicks off on Monday morning.

Dairy industry leaders will hear about the current environment on Capitol Hill, the preparations underway for the next Farm Bill, balancing trade, managing high input costs, environmental concerns, and animal care issues.

The NDPC would not have been possible without the support of generous sponsors, who contributed to events and the conference in general.

To learn more about the NDPC, visit www.nmpf.org/NDPC.

The National Milk Producers Federation’s proposal to reduce the maximum level of somatic cell counts in milk – a measure of milk quality – was rejected yesterday by the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS), which has just concluded its biennial meeting here in Baltimore.

NMPF had asked the NCIMS voting delegates – a group of state regulators overseeing milk safety rules – to reduce the maximum threshold of allowable somatic cells in milk at the farm level from the current 750,000 cells/mL, down to 400,000, starting in 2014. But on a vote of 26-25, the voting delegates rejected the proposal, meaning that the status quo threshold of 750,000 cells will remain.

“Since it’s been nearly 20 years since the current standard was established, we believed it was time to make changes that improve the nation’s milk supply,” said Jamie Jonker, NMPF Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs. “It’s regrettable that this approach isn’t the one taken by NCIMS. However, we’re confident that the trend towards lower Somatic Cell Counts will continue, regardless of the vote today.”

Jonker said that legislation to reduce the somatic cell count (SCC) level has been introduced in Congress, and that international buyers are also looking at U.S. SCC levels with greater scrutiny. Those pressures “may result in changes to SCC limits being forced by a process outside of the NCIMS, which would be unfortunate if it results in regulations that are not as workable for dairy farmers.”

During the course of the past year, much of the discussion in this column has been about the urgent need for comprehensive reform of dairy policy. I’m pleased that the broad and deep work that farmers across the country have undertaken toward that end is bearing fruit, and we hope this spring to have new legislation in Congress that encapsulates the details of our Foundation for the Future package of policy reforms. The arrival of this legislation will then give us a once in a generation opportunity to make dramatic and positive changes in the safety net programs that farmers need.

But even as that process continues, so does a great deal of effort on other fronts. I’d like to single out three of them, as each signifies something important about what NMPF is also tackling in other areas.

First, somatic cell count limits. As May begins, so does the biennial National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments. The NCIMS process allows federal and state regulators to meet with industry representatives every two years to in an effort to improve the safety of the nation’s milk supply. It’s what allows us to rightly assert that milk is one of the most heavily-regulated and tested foods in the country, and that the U.S. milk supply is the safest in the world. As always, there is room for improvement in those regulations. And at this year’s NCIMS meeting in Baltimore, NMPF is supporting a major change: reducing the allowed somatic cell count limit from 750,000 cells per mL, down to 400,000, effective Jan. 2014. In the past, we have not supported similar efforts, but now, we believe, is the time to reduce those limits – over a three-year period – to bring the U.S. closer in alignment with world standards.

National SCC averages are already in the range of 227,000, so the impact of this change will be felt mainly by the roughly 11% of the milk supply that periodically exceeds a 400,000 limit. The three-year phase-in will give those farms that may be at risk of non-compliance the opportunity to make management changes so that they are not vulnerable in the future. And let’s face it: this new threshold is the future, both for domestic milk supplies, and the international market. This is an area where we have to demonstrate a commitment to make changes for the better, because this way, the terms of that change are under our control.

The second issue I want to cite is our continued support for the enactment of trade agreements that offer us new export opportunities. In particular, we’ve been working with both the White House and Congress to pass new free trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia. Just last month, there was progress in resolving some lingering issues with the latter country, meaning there’s now light at the end of the tunnel for all three agreements.

The combined potential value of the additional U.S. dairy exports to the trio of countries exceeds $400 million annually. We saw in 2009 what happens when we lose a portion of our export business; these FTAs are a way to gain entirely new markets through lower trade barriers. Although the work on these has been slow and rife with politics, it’s exactly the type of long-term, steadfast pressure that our industry has to undertake in order for it to grow in the future.

The third and final issue is doing something about federal immigration policy. NMPF has, for at least five years, supported comprehensive efforts to deal with the labor needs of dairy farmers, because the reality is that there is a mismatch between what needs to be done on farms today, and the availability of workers who will do those chores. The survey we commissioned in 2008 found that 41% of dairy workers are foreign-born, and that if those workers were removed from the equation, a significant number of other jobs would also disappear.

Unfortunately, broad immigration reform remains a radioactive issue politically. So we have focused on where there is a more realistic chance of success, specifically, reforming the H-2A visa program. New legislation in the Senate would provide a technical fix to this existing program, allowing dairy farmers to bring in foreign-born workers to their farms, the same as other agricultural enterprises can already do under the existing H-2A regulations. Even during this period of high unemployment, and all the other challenges we have faced on farms, labor issues remain a paramount concern, and we mustn’t forget that.

Which is the point of this exercise: we have to remember that as dairy policy simmers on the stove, there are other issues that are also front-burner concerns to our industry. Some are offensive opportunities, while others involve playing defense. But they’re all part of the work that must be done here at NMPF on a regular basis.