ARLINGTON, VA – “It’s absurd for the Canadian government to assert there is no relationship between its new Class 7 policy and the lost U.S. milk sales there. When customers in Canada, who have been purchasing milk products from American suppliers for years, suddenly decide to switch to domestic suppliers after Canada implements a major change in milk pricing, it is abundantly clear that the lost business incurred by U.S. farmers is directly tied to Canada’s milk pricing system.

“The problems this pricing policy are creating for dairy farmers in Wisconsin, New York and Minnesota are real, and they have nothing to do with U.S. ‘overproduction,’ as alleged in a recent letter from Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, David MacNaughton. U.S. companies had, until recently, supplied Canadian customers during periods of relatively tight supplies and when production increased. The only change has been Canada’s deliberate pricing policy decision – starting last year in Ontario and spreading more recently to other provinces – to create a national ingredients strategy to undercut competition from the United States. Canada didn’t like U.S. farmers supplying their processors’ demand for milk proteins, so they changed the rules of the game. First they moved to block our exports and, even more problematic, their new pricing strategy is positioning them to further undercut global powder markets by dumping their surplus on the world market.

“This situation is not just a bilateral trade problem for the United States. Canada’s policy change to manipulate internal prices to export more dairy ingredients globally is of great concern to other nations beyond just the United States. That’s why countries including Australia and New Zealand have also raised objections to Canada’s harmful actions.

“Canada’s effort to shift the focus away from the internal problems with its milk pricing system is disingenuous at best. Canada can support its industry without intentionally using policy tools to harm U.S. dairy farmers and world dairy markets.”

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

ARLINGTON, VA – “We thank President Donald Trump for speaking out today in Wisconsin against the harmful pricing policy Canada implemented in an effort to stifle competition with the United States. We have repeatedly stressed that trade must be fair and that all countries should be held accountable when they break the rules. Canada’s repeated disregard for its dairy trade commitments to the United States has left American dairy farmers enduring the severe and unfair consequences.

“America’s dairy farmers will continue to work with the Trump Administration, Speaker Paul Ryan and other congressional leaders, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, as well as elected officials across the country to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We outlined the issue for the Trump Administration in a letter we sent last Thursday to the White House.”

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

ARLINGTON, VA – As discussions over immigration policy continue on Capitol Hill, the National Milk Producers Federation today thanked members of both the House and Senate for working to address the unique labor challenges faced by dairy producers. NMPF has called on legislators to address this dilemma for more than a decade.

“We welcome these bipartisan efforts to shine a light on an issue so critical to dairy producers,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “Dairy farming is a physically demanding, 24-7, 365-day job. Without the help of foreign labor, many American dairy operations face the threat of closure. We appreciate that members of both parties are building awareness of the need for action on this challenge.”

Two bills introduced recently would modify the existing H-2A agricultural visa program to make it easier for dairy farmers to hire the foreign labor they need to run their operations. Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Chris Collins (R-NY) co-authored the Farm Family Relief Act in January. Rep. Sean Duffy’s (R-WI) introduced the Defending the Agricultural Industry’s Requirements Year-round (DAIRY) Act this month.

Separately, during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing to confirm the next USDA Secretary, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) questioned nominee Sonny Perdue about finding a solution to the industry’s immigration concerns. Perdue said he supports an exemption to the H-2A program so that dairy farms can hire workers year-round.

In addition to working closely with these and other members of Congress, NMPF remains engaged on the issue of immigration through its leadership in the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC). The AWC continues to raise awareness with officials on Capitol Hill about the challenges facing the agriculture industry, specifically that of labor shortages and the role of immigrants in filling those jobs.

NMPF and the AWC have long supported immigration security and reform measures with the caveat that any proposal also includes avenues to protect current workers and enable a smooth transition to a visa program for future ones.

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. dairy sector and state agriculture officials today urged President Donald Trump to take immediate action against Canada’s repeated and escalating disregard for its trade obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Most recently, Canada implemented a new national pricing policy that blatantly blocks American dairy exports and will enable significant dumping of Canadian dairy products onto the world market. As a result, dozens of dairy farmers in the Midwest recently learned they must find new customers for their milk by May 1, which will cause considerable economic hardship and possibly force them to go out of business.

In a joint letter sent today to President Trump, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) urged the administration to tell Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to halt the new pricing policy and restore imports of the blocked U.S. products, specifically ultra-filtered milk. They also asked President Trump to direct U.S. agencies to “examine a full range of tools that could be used immediately to impress upon Canada in a concrete way the importance of dependable two-way trade.”

“U.S. dairy exports support approximately 110,000 jobs across America, many of which are in farming and food manufacturing, as well as in supporting rural manufacturing and skilled farm service workers,” the organizations said in the letter. “However, for trade to yield its full potential and provide the maximum impact possible in supporting American jobs, our trading partners must hold up their end of the bargain as well.”

In the letter, the dairy and ag groups noted that this issue highlights the importance of gaining prompt approval of President Trump’s nominees for Secretary of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representative.

“We appreciate your administration’s work to date on this issue and ask you to send a very clear message that Canada should be one of America’s most reliable trading partners, but in the case of dairy it has consistently chosen to pursue a disturbing and harmful path,” they said. “We stand ready to support your efforts to address this urgent dairy issue.”

Holding Canada to its dairy trade agreements has remained a strong focus for NMPF, USDEC, NASDA and IDFA over the last year. Earlier this year, a group of 17 dairy companies representing dairy farmers and processors from all over the United States asked governors in 25 states to urge Canadian policymakers to halt the national implementation of the milk pricing system. NMPF, USDEC, IDFA and NASDA also raised the matter with Trump in January before he assumed office.

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About IDFA
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of nearly 525 companies within a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA’s nearly 200 dairy processing members operate more than 600 manufacturing facilities, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese, ice cream and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org.

About NMPF
The National Milk Producers Federation, based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the wellbeing of dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. Visit www.nmpf.org for more information.

About USDEC
The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is a non-profit, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders. Its mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and assist the U.S. industry to increase its global dairy ingredient sales and exports of U.S. dairy products. USDEC accomplishes this through programs in market development that build global demand for U.S. dairy products, resolve market access barriers and advance industry trade policy goals. USDEC is supported by staff across the United States and overseas in Mexico, South America, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

About NASDA

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) represents the elected and appointed commissioners, secretaries, and directors of the departments of agriculture in all fifty states and four U.S. territories.  NASDA grows and enhances agriculture by forging partnerships and creating consensus to achieve sound policy outcomes between state departments of agriculture, the federal government, and stakeholders. To learn more about NASDA please visit www.nasda.org.

The National Dairy FARM Program released in mid-March a new stockmanship training video as part of the program’s partnership with the National Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program.

The 27-minute video is divided into several chapters, including “Point of Balance,” “Understanding the Flight Zone” and “Utilizing Tools to Effectively Move Cattle.” Each segment contains reminder points and multiple choice questions to test viewers’ understanding of the content. The video can serve as a training resource to satisfy the FARM Animal Care Version 3.0 requirement for annual employee training.

The video, directed by Dr. Robert Hagevoort of New Mexico State and the U.S. Dairy Education & Training Consortium is available on the FARM Program website and YouTube page in both English and Spanish.

One FARM Program family recently received recognition for their work in stockmanship. Dale and Carol Hoffman were awarded the 2017 National Beef Quality Assurance Award in March. The award is given to outstanding members of the beef industry in five categories: Cow-Calf, Feedyard, Dairy, Marketer and Educator

The Hoffmans (pictured right) are members of Land O’ Lakes, Inc., and hail from Pennsylvania. Their farm began in 1976 with just 40 cows and 400 acres, but has since expanded to include 800 milking cows.

Cooperatives Working Together assisted member cooperatives in securing 78 contracts in March to sell 12.53 million pounds of cheese and 52,360 pounds of butter to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa and Oceania. The product will be shipped from March through June 2017.

The addition of these transactions to the CWT-assisted sales made in January and February raised the total number of CWT sales to 23.49 million pounds of cheese and 1.43 million pounds of butter. In total, these sales to customers in 12 countries on five continents will move the equivalent of 248.94 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis overseas in the first six months of 2017.

Helping CWT member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program in the long-term expands the demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them. This, in turn, positively affects all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by submission of the required documentation.

All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available on the CWT website.

The U.S. average all-milk price dropped $0.40 per hundredweight from January to February, to $18.50 per hundredweight. The February all-milk price decline was consistent with the February federal order prices announced at the beginning of March.

Milk prices have come under pressure from increased U.S. milk and cheese production, as well as recent weakness in global nonfat skim milk powder/nonfat dry milk markets. These developments have dragged the CME price for block cheese down by almost $0.50 a pound from its high in early February, to a mid-March low. The daily CME price for Grade A nonfat dry milk dropped by $0.26 between early January and the beginning of March.

However, the domestic cheese market became oversold and subsequently rebounded by $0.15 a pound later in March. This price rebound occurred despite significant American-type cheese stock levels at the end of February that have been exceeded only during the dairy surplus years of 1983-1986.  Prices were also influenced by indications that milk production growth has likely stabilized at around 2.5 percent per year.

The March 30 CME futures prices indicated that the U.S. average all-milk price should bottom out in the high $16-per-hundredweight range during the spring months, and average about $17.80 per hundredweight during calendar year 2017 — $1.50 higher than 2016. USDA currently forecasts that average milk prices for all of 2017 will fall within in the range of $17.80-$18.40.

Feed ingredient prices announced by NASS for February translate into a monthly Margin Protection Program feed cost of $7.92 per hundredweight and a monthly MPP margin of $10.58 per hundredweight for February, which makes the January-February margin equal to $10.82 per hundredweight.

USDA’s current MPP margin forecast, based on the March 29 CME futures settlements, projects the margin will remain above $9 during most of 2017. USDA is currently projecting a lower probability than it did a month earlier in that the margin will fall below the $8 coverage level during 2017, with an 18 percent probability that this will occur during May-June and a lower likelihood during other bimonthly periods this year.

USDA’s MPP margin forecasts are updated daily online. NMPF’s Future for Dairy website offers a variety of educational resources to help farmers make better use of the program.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer aligned himself with several NMPF trade priorities during a hearing on his nomination last month before the Senate Finance Committee. In preparation for that hearing, NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) asked senators on the committee to ensure that key dairy policy issues, including trade with Canada and the importance of common food names, were addressed.

Lighthizer’s replies reflected a clear recognition of the importance of agricultural trade, a point NMPF has raised repeatedly with Congress and the Trump Administration to counter what has appeared to be a growing skepticism of trade agreements.

Lighthizer was nominated for the USTR position in January, but has not yet been confirmed. NMPF supports his confirmation and has urged the Senate to quickly approve him.

As the lead U.S. trade negotiator, Lighthizer said he would be a champion for agriculture, adding, “I assure you we will prioritize agriculture, both with maintaining what we have and by also gaining market access.”

With the future of NAFTA still uncertain, Lighthizer said that any negotiations must preserve current market access while improving NAFTA for all three countries. If done properly, he added, it will not harm agriculture’s stake in the agreement. This approach is the same one NMPF has recommended to the Trump Administration and Congress as being most beneficial in NAFTA discussions.  

In addition to questions from senators highlighting the importance of agricultural trade, Lighthizer was also pressed on both Canada’s protectionist dairy policies and Europe’s use of Geographic Indications (GIs). In reference to the latter, he said, “We have to take it head on … We want to discourage other countries from agreeing to these geographic indicators and resist them in the United States.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has indicated the Committee hopes to vote to approve Lighthizer’s nomination as the U.S.’s chief trade negotiator when the Senate returns after the Easter recess.

NMPF looks forward to engaging with the incoming USTR on the importance of pursuing well-negotiated trade agreements that would help the dairy sector serve consumers all over the world.

In mid-March, Maine dairy producer Travis Fogler, a member of Dairy Farmers of America, published an opinion piece in the state’s largest newspaper in which Fogler encouraged support for the DAIRY PRIDE Act (DPA), legislation that would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce the long-standing regulation that “milk” must come from an animal source. Shortly after its publication, Maine Sen. Angus King (ME-I) came out in support of the legislation.

In the piece, printed in the Portland Press Herald, Fogler said that “dairy farmers work extremely hard to follow our industry’s extensive regulations – including the Food and Drug Administration’s labeling laws specifying what milk is. Government regulations say imitators shouldn’t be able to copy the names of cheese and yogurt,” he noted, adding that “for more than a decade, we’ve seen an explosion of products that mimic certain attributes of milk, including co-opting that very name. Unfortunately, the FDA has turned a blind eye to this growing practice.”

Fogler’s article joins another recent op-ed column from NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern in calling for congressional backing of the DPA, which was introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in the Senate, and by Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT), Mike Simpson (R-ID) and Sean Duffy (R-WI) in the House.

To help generate support from its dairy producer-members, NMPF has been providing cooperatives with legislative action alerts, news articles, infographics and other materials. NMPF strongly encourages cooperatives to share these materials with staff, producer-members and on social media to whip up industry and congressional support for the two bills.

NMPF has also been promoting a series of colorful graphics on Facebook and Twitter that call out the nutritional disparity between real dairy and its copycats. As Fogler noted in his column, “All the camouflage in the world won’t produce the natural goodness of real milk.”

The Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC), of which NMPF is a founding member, called on the Trump Administration to focus on immigration reforms that will benefit dairy farmers and the rest of U.S. agriculture in a letter sent last week to President Donald Trump. NMPF signed the letter on behalf of all its dairy cooperative members, and was among 70 groups representing a broad cross-section of farm commodities calling for labor policy reforms to ensure that American agriculture has a legal, stable supply of workers.

“Our farmers face growing shortages of legally authorized and experienced workers each year,” the AWC told the White House. “This shortage of labor negatively impacts our economic competitiveness, local economies and jobs. Reforms are necessary to address the agricultural labor shortage.”

The letter specifically addressed the needs of the dairy sector, emphasizing that for dairy farmers, “cows must be milked twice a day, 365 days a year. Thus, dairy farmers are left without any legal channel to find workers when U.S. workers are simply not available or not interested.”

The AWC noted that the only current guest worker program available, the H-2A visa program, only allows for temporary or seasonal workers, and therefore cannot be used by certain farm sectors, including dairy, that have a year-round need for labor.

What’s more, the coalition said, this labor shortage threatens jobs far beyond the farm. Each farmworker engaged in crop or livestock production supports 2-3 other jobs off the farm, such as those in food transportation, processing and marketing.

In addition to laying out the reason why a new guest worker program is essential to the health of the farm sector, AWC also urged the Administration to create a lawful path so the current undocumented foreign laborers can obtain legal status.

“Agriculture needs a new program that meets the needs of our diverse industry and functions as efficiently as the current free market while providing the security of legal, documented temporary workers,” the letter said.