Author: Theresa Sweeney

NMPF Advocacy Helps Boost Market Development Funding

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Oct. 23 it will direct $1.3 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to establish a Regional Trade Promotion Program, and another $1 billion to commodity-based international food aid, after significant lobbying from NMPF and encouragement from the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

The funding announcement was prompted by a Sept. 6 letter from Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, and Ranking Member John Boozman, R-AR, calling on the agency to expand CCC authority to fund export promotion and food aid initiatives. NMPF has long advocated for Congress to double funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program, which significantly advance U.S. dairy’s reach overseas but have not received a funding boost in more 16 years. This U.S. investment will help bridge the gap in export promotion funding that U.S. agriculture receives in comparison to foreign competitors.

Farm Bill Expiration Spotlights Urgency to Enact Law

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The 2018 Farm Bill’s lapse Sept. 30 is the first step in a cascade of expirations that includes key dairy programs ending Dec. 31, making year-end passage of a new farm bill a critical priority for dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own.

NMPF is seeking timely passage of a farm bill that:

  • Includes provisions to complement the organization’s ongoing Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization efforts;
  • Continues and updates the Dairy Margin Coverage program;
  • Maintain conservation programs with emphasis on feed and manure management;
  • Enhances trade promotion programs and enacts key protections for common food names; and
  • Continues robust spending for vital nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

While disputes regarding government funding and House leadership have held off farm-bill movement, the committees are working diligently and in a bipartisan manner to be ready to move bills across the floor at the earliest possible opportunity. Discussions continue regarding ways to meet a variety of funding requests, including on commodity and trade programs.

Passing a farm bill this year is a top priority for NMPF; still, an extension must be enacted at a minimum if a new bill is not finished. The Dairy Margin Coverage safety net lapses Dec. 31 if it is not either reauthorized or extended. Further, no action by New Year’s Day would trigger the “dairy cliff”, whereby 1940s-era permanent law would kick in and trigger very high price support levels for numerous commodities, including dairy. While the dairy cliff has always been more of a prod to congressional action than an imminent threat, due to the new rules that would need to be written and the timeline for implementation, the result would be much higher milk prices in the short term. However, NMPF remains confident that Congress will prevent these lapses, as has happened during each farm bill process previously.

NMPF Critical to Disaster Assistance Extension

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF advocacy and assistance paid off for farmers in October, as organization efforts encouraged the U.S. Department of Agriculture first to offer, then to extend the application deadline for critical, long-awaited financial assistance for dairy farmers affected by natural disasters.

The Milk Loss Assistance Program administered by the Farm Service Agency is compensating eligible dairy farms and processors for milk dumped due to qualifying disaster events in 2020, 2021 and 2022, including droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms and smoke exposure. It’s designed to help farmers and, in certain cases, cooperatives, recover losses previously overlooked by disaster assistance.

After announcing the program, which was created in a coronavirus assistance bill but delayed by rule-writing, in early October, NMPF urged USDA to extend its signup deadline to Oct. 30, giving farmers more time to participate. NMPF, which helped individual farmers and member cooperatives navigate the program, said in a news release and on social media that it appreciated USDA’s action, offering additional details to help members in a Member Alert.

“We are grateful to USDA for giving dairy farmers extra time to enroll in the Milk Loss Program,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF, in a news release. “This essential program will compensate producers for milk dumped due to disasters over several years. This extension will allow farmers more time to prepare their applications and fully benefit.”

DMC Margin Gains Almost $2 in September

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin in September rose rapidly from August, as markets have been anticipating for months. The margin was $8.44/cwt for the month, rising $1.98/cwt over August, which itself was up almost $3 from July’s record low of $3.52/cwt.

As with the August increase, September’s DMC margin rise was driven primarily by a higher all-milk price, which rose by $1.30/cwt over August to hit $21.00/cwt. The September DMC feed cost formula shed $0.68/cwt, due mostly to a lower corn price, with a smaller drop in the September soybean meal price partially offset by a small rebound in the price of premium alfalfa hay.

The September margin will generate $1.06/cwt payments to $9.50/cwt DMC Tier 1 coverage. The futures markets are currently expecting the DMC margin to hover around that maximum coverage level each month during the fourth quarter of the year.

Joint Annual Meeting to Detail Policy, Industry Highlights

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The joint annual meeting of NMPF and its checkoff group partners Nov. 12-15 in Orlando is set to update more than 750 participants on the breadth and depth of activities that National Milk and Dairy Management Inc. are conducting on behalf of their members, ranging from marketing and promotion to policy and analysis.

Guest speakers at the four-day conference include Terry Jones, the founder of Travelocity.com and chairman of Kayak.com, who will speak on leveraging disruption and innovation as technology and consumer tastes continually evolve. Other guest speakers include Eric Clavetter from the Mayo Clinic, who will speak about advancing dairy’s health benefits; and Kerry Delaney with General Mills, who will assess how dairy plays an essential role in providing health and wellness solutions through new product marketing channels. The schedule at a glance is available here. Late registrations are still being accepted, with an additional $150 per person late fee.

This year, all attendees will participate in a series of four rotating breakout sessions designed to provide a deeper dive into key areas of work for NMPF and DMI.  These include:

Collaborating for Dairy’s Future: Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability – A review of U.S. dairy’s commitment to environmental stewardship, a core component of socially responsible dairy production.

Innovating for Dairy’s Future: Leveraging Science for Sustained Growth – A discussion with industry experts how U.S. dairy is using science, technology, innovation, and strategic partnerships to identify new consumer opportunities and drive current and future dairy sales.

Fueling Dairy Love: A Day in the Life of Key Consumers – An educational exchange on industry-wide efforts that bring dairy nutrition, dairy purpose and dairy-liciousness front and center to capture the attention of Gen Z and Early Parents.

Remodeling Federal Dairy Policy: Updating Federal Orders and the Farm Bill – An assessment of how and why NMPF has developed two blueprints this year to improve the future direction of dairy policy, focusing on the 2023 Farm Bill and the Federal Milk Marketing Order system.

The meeting also will offer receptions on both Monday and Tuesday nights.  NMPF’s Young Cooperators will have its own meeting track that features professional development and leadership training along with networking opportunities.

NMPF Powers World Dairy Summit Success; Vilsack Honors Mulhern

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF turned out in full force as a dairy industry leader at the International Dairy Federation’s (IDF) World Dairy Summit in Chicago, with numerous speakers and a special recognition for President and CEO Jim Mulhern at the event Oct. 15-19.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack honored NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern for his “exemplary leadership and decades of service to the U.S. dairy community” during the summit’s first day, commending Mulhern for his four decades of professional service for agriculture and dairy.

This year’s summit, the first hosted in the United States in 30 years, was brought to Chicago in large part in large part due to NMPF, U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and Dairy Management Inc. leadership. Shawna Morris, NMPF and USDEC Executive Vice President for Trade Policy and Global Affairs and Nick Gardner, USDEC Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Multilateral Affairs, co-chaired the event. Together they oversaw the development of a conference that highlighted the U.S. dairy industry’s leadership on a variety of issues, including quality, sustainability, innovation, and more.

Jamie Jonker, Chief Science Officer and Vice President for Sustainability & Scientific Affairs, serves as IDF’s Chair of the Science and Program Coordination Committee and was prominently involved in multiple areas of the summit. DMI provided a Diamond level sponsorship to the summit to ensure it had sufficient funding to be successful. Numerous NMPF, USDEC and DMI staff contributed to the summit’s planning and execution.

NMPF and its members had a significant presence throughout the conference, including presentations delivered by Jonker as well as:

  • Jaime Castaneda, Executive Vice President for Policy Development and Strategy
  • Clay Detlefsen, Senior Vice President for Regulatory and Environmental Affairs
  • Karen Jordan, NMPF Animal Health and Wellbeing Committee Chairwoman and Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) Board member
  • Will Loux, Vice President of Global Economic Affairs
  • Lorilee Schultz, NMPF Young Cooperator Chairwoman and Prairie Farms member
  • Simon Vander Woude, NMPF First Vice Chairman and Chairman of California Dairies Inc. (CDI)
  • Jay Waldvogel and Brian Izdepski, Dairy Farmers of America staff

In addition, NMPF Senior Director of Communications and Outreach Theresa Sweeney-Murphy, organized the World Dairy Summit’s first-ever Young Farmer Roundtable, gathering two dozen next generation dairy farmer leaders from around the world, with producers representing the United States, Canada, Ecuador, Netherlands, United Kingdom and New Zealand. The National YC Program also hosted the first-of-its-kind young farmer session at the IDF World Dairy Summit in Chicago, IL on Oct. 18. Moderated by the U.S. Dairy Export Council’s Krysta Harden, 24 participants discussed the challenges—both shared and unique—that beginning farmers face around the world.

NMPF also sponsored the Oct. 15 U.S. reception at the summit, in collaboration with U.S.-IDF, USDEC, the American Dairy Products Institute and International Dairy Food Association.

The following NMPF members contributed dairy products to the summit’s dairy bar or evening receptions to ensure visitors from around the world tasted some of the United States’ award-winning dairy offerings: Agri-Mark, Dairy Farmers of America, Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery, Land O’Lakes, Michigan Milk Producers Association, Prairie Farms Dairy and Tillamook.

Additionally, farmers belonging to NMPF members Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) and Foremost Farms graciously welcomed visitors onto their farms as part of the official summit tours to offer a glimpse into how U.S. dairy farms operate. DFA also hosted Michigan tour participants at two processing facilities to showcase the high-quality production and innovative processing the U.S. has to offer. NMPF’s FARM team was deeply involved in organizing and executing summit tours.

NMPF members Associated Milk Producers Inc., DFA, California Dairies Inc., MMPA, and United Dairymen of Arizona helped make the summit possible through their sponsorship or exhibitor support.

To mark the summit’s close, IDF released a statement approved earlier in the week by the IDF General Assembly that delivered a unified message on how the global dairy sector is working to sustainably nourishing people while supporting planet health and communities.

“The IDF 2023 Summit statement lays out a robust roadmap for policymakers and organizations on how to meet and support the dairy sector’s level of critical contribution and ambition to an ever brighter tomorrow,” said Morris during remarks at the summit.

In The “Eye of The Storm,” Dairy Farmers Stand Strong

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Next week, dairy farmers from across the nation are gathering in Orlando, FL, for NMPF’s annual meeting, with no shortage of important items to discuss.

  • America is currently without a farm bill — a circumstance that’s not unheard-of given the usual lapses in legislation, but one that inevitably raises uncertainty and questions of strategy.
  • USDA’s Federal Milk Marketing Order hearing is in a temporary pause before resuming Nov. 27. Thanks to years of painstaking preparation and an unshakable consensus among our members, we at NMPF feel very good about our hearing proposals. But the hearing’s final major issue, the Class I price surface, is still under consideration. And even after the hearing concludes, several steps remain before a successful producer vote will take place, likely late next year, on a USDA plan we hope will be largely modeled on our own.
  • The dairy economy continues to be challenging. Prices and margins are now rising, but only after producers experienced their lowest margins since the current USDA safety-net system began. Meanwhile, dairy producers continue to experience bad-faith attacks from outside activists over their animal care stewardship, environmental and climate leadership, and workforce management. And exports continue to suffer because of unfair trade policies. And so on.

So, while our conversations will be cordial and collegial, in the cooperative spirit that defines our industry, our challenges are real. And, as usual, we will meet those challenges.

  • On the farm bill, we have crafted board-approved positions that will both preserve the safety net successfully established in the now expired 2018 law while improving meaningful risk management for farms of all sizes, in all regions, while positioning our industry to utilize financial incentives that support our Net Zero Initiative. Dairy farmers are speaking with one voice on these issues, which is always when we are most effective. And the relationships we’ve built on both sides of the aisle allow us to move ahead with confidence.
  • On FMMO, I can’t speak enough about how our comprehensive, farmer co-op-led approach to modernization has impressed the logic and necessity of our plan upon USDA. Through weeks of testimony and dozens of dairy farmer and cooperative expert witnesses, the intellectual rigor and on-farm passion has made a compelling case for our plan – which should carry significant influence with USDA in developing a final proposal. There isn’t enough space in this column to thank everyone who deserves our gratitude, and the honor roll will only grow as we continue to move this process forward.
  • On other issues, some shorter-term and others longer, we have our own record of resilience on which to fall back. When the economy stalls, we innovate, adjust, survive, and thrive. When our naysayers proclaim the “Death of Dairy,” we’re the ones who show life, fighting those messages with the most compelling counter we have – the truth. And we continue to show the world just how compelling and critical our products are, building global market share and our reputation for global leadership, as we did at last month’s successful International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit in Chicago.

From one perspective, given the moment during which we’re meeting, it could be said that we’re gathering during the eye of a storm – not a bad metaphor for a meeting in Florida. But really, I think of it more like the moment before a dawn, when the new day is about to reveal itself and you’re ready to take it on. We never lack for challenges in dairy, and we never lack for solutions. In Orlando, we’re ready to convene. And nationwide, as always, we’re ready to lead.

Jim Mulhern

President & CEO, NMPF

 

Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Co-op Takes Top Communications Honors in NMPF Contest

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association took top honors in the National Milk Producers Federation’s (NMPF) annual cooperative communications contest, and a farmer-owner of the cooperative also received NMPF’s Farmer Communicator of the Year award.

Austin Schwartzbeck of Peace & Plenty Farm won the farmer award for his active efforts in promoting dairy’s values through communicating with both dairy and non-dairy audiences – including a recent television feature about how he and his wife met at the Maryland State Fair.

“Austin’s excellence in communication on behalf of the dairy community is rooted in his ability to tell a compelling personal story, connect with readers emotionally, educate and advocate for the industry, emphasize family values, utilize visual storytelling and leverage various media platforms for outreach,” Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative said in its nomination letter. “Through these efforts, he effectively portrays the dairy industry as one filled with dedication, tradition and a deep love for farming.”

Schwartzbeck and his family milk 245 registered Holsteins and farm 1,100 acres in Union Bridge, MD.

Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative was also recognized as the Cooperative Communicator of the Year, receiving top honors in the writing category and recognition in the publications, graphics and special projects categories.

The cooperative’s “Best of Show” award winner, “MDVA Member Stands as Beacon of Service to Others,” details North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University’s 492-acre farm with 57 dairy cows three miles from the skyline of downtown Greensboro – a Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association member and the only dairy unit at a Historically Black College and University.

“This entry delivers delightful surprises while at the same time examining — without flinching — a serious national problem: the decline of black dairy farmers from 1 million in 1920 to 50,000 today,” the contest evaluator wrote. “The entry does more than expose a crisis. It shines a spotlight on a hidden gem providing a partial solution.”

NMPF also spotlighted the farm earlier this year as part of its Farmer Focus series.

The “Best of Show” award is selected from the first-place entries in the contest’s main areas: publication, writing, graphics and special projects. This year’s winners were:

All the winners will also be recognized at NMPF’s annual meeting in Orlando, FL on Nov. 13-15. A full list of the winners of the NMPF communications contest, which received 110 entries from 15 member cooperatives, can be found here.

NMPF Regulatory Work “Registers” with Influential Audience

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

It may be one of NMPF’s most-hidden secrets to its members – an influential quarterly publication that puts dairy’s side of the story before the government and regulatory experts who directly influence dairy policy. But it’s a secret that’s hiding in plain sight, as the Regulatory Register is a critical part of NMPF regulatory work. And in this week’s Dairy Defined Podcast, the organization’s regulatory team talks about the critical work they’re doing for dairy – and previews the next Register.

“It’s important for us to get our side of the regulatory story out to the broader community, not only the dairy industry itself, but also the regulators at the federal and state level on the variety of issues that happen in the regulatory space that are important for the US dairy industry,” said NMPF’s Chief Science Officer, Jamie Jonker, on the podcast, where he was joined by Senior Vice President for Regulatory Affairs and NMPF Chief Counsel, Clay Detlefsen, and Miquela Hanselman, NMPF’s Director of Regulatory Affairs.

The full podcast is here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file below. Please attribute information to NMPF.

NMPF and USDEC Commend Significant New Investment in Export Market Promotion

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) praised today’s announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it plans to devote $2.3 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation to promoting better market opportunities for U.S. agricultural producers and expanding food aid to support communities in need around the world.

The expanded export support program and food aid were requested by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, and Ranking Member Sen. John Boozman, R-AR, in late August.  USDA will devote $1.3 billion to establishing a Regional Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, and $1 billion to commodity-based international food aid.

“The U.S. dairy community is grateful for the USDA’s decision to invest in supporting the cultivation of enhanced international market opportunities for America’s dairy farmers and cooperatives. We thank Senators Stabenow and Boozman for their initiative in encouraging USDA to pursue this course of action,” said NMPF president and CEO Jim Mulhern. “Now more than ever, the U.S. dairy industry relies on exports. If distributed to those sectors that are presently underfunded such as dairy, the new export promotion funding will put us in a better position to compete globally and grow our consumer base. NMPF encourages Congress to build on today’s announcement by USDA to also deliver additional funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program in the development of the next Farm Bill.”

NMPF, USDEC and other agricultural leaders are advocating for Congress to double funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program – the two programs have not received a raise in over 16 years, despite offering consistent returns on investment.

“Farmers, manufacturers and workers up and down the dairy supply chain benefit from expanded trade opportunities that help the industry thrive in today’s global economy,” said USDEC president and CEO Krysta Harden. “We’re thankful that USDA is taking this important step to support American Agriculture and appreciate Senators Stabenow and Boozman elevating the importance of using CCC resources to fund programs that will strengthen the U.S. dairy industry through the creation of new markets and the promotion of nutritional dairy-containing products in food aid. We look forward to continuing to work together to level the playing field for America’s dairy farmers and producers.”