Author: Theresa Sweeney

FARM Program Launches New Look, Features for Database

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The FARM Program launched a new user interface for its database Feb. 20.

The FARM database is used by FARM Program evaluators and participant managers to conduct evaluations and track farm progress over time within the FARM Program Areas. The new database features allow FARM Program evaluators and managers to navigate dashboards more easily as well as manage certifications, farm data and action plans. A new search feature with enhanced filtering options streamlines users’ ability to find information.

FARM will host Zoom demo sessions for evaluators and managers to walk through the new site navigation and have their questions answered in real-time. FARM database users can access the database with their existing login credentials.

NMPF Represents U.S. Dairy at WTO Ministerial

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF Executive Vice President for Policy Development & Strategy Jaime Castaneda and Trade Policy Director Tony Rice advocated for U.S. dairy in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, Feb. 26-29, seeking improved market access and pro-dairy policies at the World Trade Organization Ministerial.

As a recognized non-government representative at the Ministerial, NMPF joined the U.S. Coalition for WTO Reform to advise U.S. government negotiators throughout the meeting, meet with the WTO Secretariat and likeminded delegations, and raise the profile of U.S. agricultural trade priorities.

Important issues at stake include:

  • Negotiations to reform the dispute settlement system.
  • The establishment of a work plan on agriculture that includes market access as a priority.
  • Pushing back against attempts to weaken WTO agricultural rules related to public stockholding subsidies and special safeguard mechanisms that would distort trade.

Castaneda also spoke at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce organized event on the importance of WTO dispute settlement reform and highlighted the outcomes that U.S. agriculture is prioritizing at the ministerial. Castaneda and Rice also met with U.S. Dairy Export Council international staff to receive the latest updates on barriers to trade in the Middle East and North Africa regions.

Ag Groups Oppose Proposed Rodenticide Policy Changes

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF and other agriculture groups submitted comments to EPA on Feb. 13 strongly opposing any policy in the “Draft Biological Evaluation for the Rodenticides and the Rodenticide Strategy” that involves making rodenticides restricted-use products.

NMPF and the agriculture groups strongly supported enhancing rodenticide stewardship to mitigate risks to non-target species while raising concerns about the effectiveness of EPA’s proposed strategy.

“We are deeply concerned that assumptions made and errors in the Agency’s analysis do not support the Agency’s finding that the rodenticides are likely to adversely affect even a single individual plant or animal,” the groups said in their comments.

The groups cautioned against designating rodenticide products as restricted-use items and warned of potential hazards on farms and ranches. The comments also emphasized the critical importance of maintaining effective and affordable rodent control measures to safeguard animal welfare and food safety while preventing substantial environmental and financial losses in grain and feed.

NMPF, alongside other farm groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council, emphasized EPA’s need to collaborate with rodenticide manufacturers and agricultural stakeholders to conduct comprehensive studies on how specific uses of rodenticides and potential pathways of exposure could adversely impact endangered species.

NMPF has actively participated in this issue for several years alongside fellow agriculture groups opposing the proposed rodenticide ban.

NMPF Against Emissions Reporting for Manure under EPCRA

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF filed its own comments Feb. 13 and joined with other agriculture groups in coalition comments to EPA’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking weighing in on the reporting of air emissions from manure under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).

Both sets of comments assert that Congress, the emergency response community, animal agriculture groups and the Coast Guard think that reporting air emissions from manure under a statute designed to address serious, life-threatening chemical spills is ill-advised and unnecessary. NMPF also said reporting would invade farmers’ privacy and put them at risk of being targeted by activist groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, which has been labeled a terrorist organization by the FBI.

Air emissions reporting under EPCRA has been an ongoing battle. NMPF and other agriculture groups were able to quash the notion that ammonia and hydrogen sulfide from manure were reportable under EPCRA and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act through a legislative fix in 2018 and a regulatory fix in 2019.

In January 2021, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order instructing EPA to review and rethink its regulations. Later that same year, EPA requested a court, where legal action was ongoing, to send the rule back for review without nullifying it so the rule would remain in effect while undergoing review.

The agency’s plan to revoke the exemption it granted in 2019 was abandoned after pushback from NMPF and other agriculture groups. NMPF is cautiously optimistic that the common-sense exemption will be retained. On Feb. 14, Representatives Nick Langworthy, R-NY, and Jim Costa, D-CA, led a letter signed by 44 of their colleagues urging EPA to retain the current exemption.

CWT Task Force Explores Program’s Future

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF’s task force of farmers and cooperative leaders met several times in recent weeks to consider a range of ideas as the program faces renewal this year.  The task force, formed earlier this year to consider how the CWT export assistance program should evolve in the future to better meet the needs of its members, is generating ideas to present a series of potential extensions of CWT’s current operations to the NMPF Board of Directors for consideration and approval.

Ideas discussed so far include support to develop new products in new markets, expand the range of products exported and sold in overseas markets, and improve the shipping and logistics capabilities needed to export U.S. dairy products.  The task force will continue to meet virtually in the spring to flesh out concepts and propose detailed proposals to the NMPF Board.

CWT February Committed Product Volume

January DMC Margin Inches Up Just Four Cents Over December

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The January Dairy Margin Coverage program margin remained mired below the $9.50/cwt maximum Tier 1 coverage level, gaining just 4 cents over December to come in at $8.48/cwt and generating a payment of $1.02/cwt for that maximum coverage.

The national average All-milk price in January dropped $0.50/cwt from December to $20.10/cwt, while a $0.54/cwt drop in the DMC feed cost calculation offset that decline to result in the margin’s small improvement. The feed-cost decline was mostly driven mostly by a falling soybean meal price, assisted by slightly lower corn and premium alfalfa hay prices.

End-of-February futures-based forecasts indicated that DMC margins would remain mostly above the $9.50/cwt maximum Tier 1 coverage level for the rest of 2024.

DMC Sign-up Begins as NMPF Calls for Farm Bill

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF welcomed USDA’s Feb. 23 announcement that this year’s sign-up period for the Dairy Margin Coverage program would open Feb. 28 and run through April 29. Payments began yesterday for payments triggered by January’s $8.48/cwt DMC margin.

The DMC program for 2024 is improved compared to past years, due to NMPF leadership. The one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill approved in December permanently incorporated the Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage program into the underlying DMC. This important fix ensures that the 2019 production history update will move forward permanently with DMC and not need to be extended separately.

“Dairy farmers are pleased to finally have the certainty of knowing when the Dairy Margin Coverage program signup is beginning, and NMPF urges every dairy farmer to strongly consider signing up,” said Gregg Doud, NMPF president and CEO, in a statement. “We thank Congress for making this important change and are grateful for USDA’s work in rolling out this updated program for farmers.”

Still, the delay in DMC implementation – and its one-year nature – underscores the importance of approving a new farm bill, Doud said. Recent low producer margins show the critical importance of longer-term DMC reauthorization. NMPF is reaffirming its call for Congress to pass a five-year farm bill as quickly as possible. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are continuing to develop their respective farm bill proposals.

“NMPF is eager to assist producers in any way they can with this program. We also look forward to working to ensure that farmers receive what they need even more – a new farm bill that provides certainty for the next several years, and not just 2024,” said Doud.

Dairy farmers who were enrolled in DMC in 2023 under a five-year lock-in contract received a 25 percent discount on their premiums. Those farmers will be eligible for the discount in 2024 as well. However, all dairy producers must still enroll during the 2024 DMC enrollment period.

For more NMPF resources related to the DMC program and federally backed risk management programs, visit here.

Cooperatives Working Together Critical for U.S. Dairy’s Future

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Let’s say it plainly: Exports are critical to the future of U.S. dairy, and dairy cooperatives that point themselves toward benefiting from exports will gain additional opportunities to thrive. That’s why one of NMPF’s most important projects this year is rethinking and renewing its Cooperatives Working Together program. CWT has played a major role in boosting U.S. dairy exports and increasing milk prices for all producers in recent years. It promises to become even more significant in the future as its reach and resources potentially expand.

For those less familiar with the program, here are the basics: It’s a voluntary, marketing-focused program managed by NMPF and funded by CWT participating member cooperatives that boosts U.S. dairy product sales and strengthens relationships with overseas customers by helping participating cooperatives weather the ebbs and flows of international markets. Increasing overseas sales helps U.S. producers grow new markets. It also helps them sell products abroad that otherwise would stay at home, which better aligns supply and demand for everyone, regardless of where their milk is marketed. And by pooling resources to build member exports, CWT is a classic example of the self-help cooperative spirit in action.

Trade is the central way U.S. dairy producers have been able to find markets for production that’s grown faster than U.S. mouths can consume it: 17 percent of U.S. milk is now being shipped overseas in some form, up from 13 percent in 2010. CWT has significantly assisted that expansion. Last year, despite global economic challenges and sluggish international demand, CWT member cooperatives secured 553 contracts overseas, representing 58.4 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 1.1 million pounds of butter, 46,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 39 million pounds of whole milk powder and 9.1 million pounds of cream cheese. In milk equivalent, that equals 922.1 million pounds on a milkfat basis.

Other than cheese, every product included in CWT saw its volume of sales supported by the program increase in 2023, including a 73 percent gain in butter and a 27 percent jump in whole milk powder. CWT-supported sales also reached more countries than the year before, thriving both in places where the U.S. is establishing itself as a reliable partner and in new destinations where CWT has encouraged buyers to take a closer look at U.S. dairy. All of this shows how CWT is a proven winner for U.S. dairy, one that, even in challenging years, shows growth and greater potential.

That’s where we stand, heading into a pivotal year for the program.

CWT is renewed every three years, and 2024 is a renewal year in that cycle. We have exciting opportunities this time around to enhance CWT’s export assistance program, including expanding the number of products supported. We have also initiated conversations about how CWT could help member sales through means other than providing direct export support, such as providing logistical, manufacturing and marketing support. To generate ideas and assess the merits of various innovative proposals, we’ve convened a task force of experts from our cooperatives to identify what the collective investment in CWT can achieve.

Membership is open to any dairy cooperative – most, but not all, members are part of NMPF – and its business benefits outweigh its membership costs. Every cooperative has good reason to join: Larger, established co-ops can use export assistance to solidify and expand sales and markets, while co-ops less acquainted with the international arena can use CWT to help them break in, knowing they have the backing of an established, successful way to reach foreign markets.

CWT can help co-ops keep their bottom lines healthy, and they can provide impetus for expansion. It’s been helping everyone in dairy for years by encouraging demand that lifts the entire industry, driven by the cooperatives who effectively use it.

As this conversation unfolds, we’re both interested and eager to gain input that both improves CWT’s value for current members and encourages new ones to join. Cooperatives Working Together gives its members an advantage in facing dairy’s future, and it’s an important asset to the entire industry. We’re excited to see where we can take it in its next chapter. Thank you for any help you can provide.

Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF

 

Raw Milk Doesn’t Define Dairy

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The activist claims are unfounded. The proposed laws endanger public health. And raw milk does not define dairy.

Much like the anti-vaccination movement (with whom it shares many advocates), raw milk proponents make various claims that may seem at least somewhat plausible but fall apart on closer scrutiny. The arguments, and the suspect reasoning behind them, have popped up in state legislatures for years, and for the most part they may not seem to require that much scrutiny – until someone gets sick, which happens all too often.

But with new laws being considered in more states, the tiny niche of raw milk has the potential to disrupt the dairy industry far beyond its actual market. Long touted by its devotees as superior to pasteurized milk and the key to saving dairy farms, in practice it undoes generations of public health success that has won consumer trust and made commercially sold milk one of the safest products available.

To cite the science: Raw milk does not contain more or superior nutrition to pasteurized milk. Raw milk’s record on gut health shows how greater harm works against any perceived benefits. Raw milk does not “cure” lactose intolerance. And so on, and so on.

What raw milk does do is contain pathogens that make people sick. The current patchwork of local regulations has proven why raw milk is a public health threat: Places where raw milk sales are available to the public see much greater milk-related illness outbreaks than places where such sales are prohibited. That’s why pasteurization was invented in the first place – not as a conspiracy against consumers or farmers, but as a public health measure that has saved thousands of lives over  generations.

Those are just a few of the reasons why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration support raw milk restrictions. As with routine vaccinations, in which a decline has led to deadly, and absolutely unnecessary, illness outbreaks, pasteurization has been so effective, for so long, that many people no longer remember how  this technology improved lives in the first place.

Another popular raw-milk argument is that what consenting adults choose to buy and sell is their own business. With all due respect to absolutist libertarians, the world doesn’t work that way, as every consumer-safety regulation in the universe attests. The world especially doesn’t work that way when a product bought by consenting adults is then given to children. The vaccination comparison holds: Even though personal-conscience and religious belief exemptions exist, good luck enrolling children in a public school without a polio vaccine. There’s a reason for that. Ask your grandparents.

Another argument in raw milk’s favor is that it will “save the farm.” It’s certainly possible that revenues from small-scale sales may help a dairy farm here and there. But it’s even more certain that foodborne outbreaks that weaken consumer confidence in milk (and unfortunately, many consumers won’t distinguish between raw and pasteurized milk when hearing a radio news report on a highway) harm the tens of thousands of dairy farmers who sell in the commercial marketplace.

Dairy farmers have spent generations building a reputation for safety and quality. No “alternative” testing protocol will ensure the same level of safety as decades of experience with pasteurization, and no assurance that raw milk sellers will do the right thing and ensure safety on their own will take the place of a surefire technology that is universally applied.

So, to any state legislator who is contemplating loosening restrictions on raw milk sales: The National Milk Producers Federation, the largest organization of dairy farmers in the United States, representing small, medium and large farms, more than 95 percent of them family-owned and operated, in every region of the country, stands opposed to the legislation you are considering. It’s bad for families, it’s bad for farmers, and it’s based on bad science.

The suspect evidence and faulty reasoning has gone on long enough. It needs to stop.

NMPF Urges DMC Signup as USDA Announces Enrollment

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Statement from NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud:

“Dairy farmers are pleased to finally have the certainty of knowing when the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program signup is beginning, and NMPF urges every dairy farmer to strongly consider signing up. DMC itself is improved from the previous farm bill, thanks to the permanent incorporation of updated production histories in the program, and recent low producer margins underscore just how critical DMC is for dairy farms of all sizes. We thank Congress for making this important change and are grateful for USDA’s work in rolling out this updated program for farmers.

“NMPF is eager to assist producers in any way they can with this program. We also look forward to working to ensure that farmers receive what they need even more – a new farm bill that provides certainty for the next several years, and not just 2024.”

USDA announced today that the 2024 Dairy Margin Coverage sign-up will open Feb. 28 and run through April 29. For more NMPF resources related to the DMC program and other federally backed risk management programs, visit here.