CWT assisted member cooperatives in securing 79 contracts resulting in sales of 3 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 3.3 million pounds of butter, 985,466 pounds of anhydrous milkfat (AMF), 3 million pounds of whole milk powder, and 2.4 pounds of cream cheese. The product is going to 56 customers in 15 countries in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, Oceania and South America. The product will be shipped during the months of January through June 2021.

These transactions will move the equivalent of 170.2 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis overseas.

Assisting CWT member cooperatives to 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 impacts 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 the submission of the required documentation.

All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available at http://www.cwt.coop/membership.

NMPF is now accepting applications for its National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Each year, NMPF awards scholarships to outstanding graduate students (enrolled in Master’s or Ph.D. programs) who are actively pursuing dairy-related fields of research that are of immediate interest to NMPF member cooperatives and the US dairy industry at large.

Graduate students pursuing research of direct benefit to milk marketing cooperatives and dairy producers are encouraged to apply (applicants do not need to be members of NMPF to qualify).  The top applicant will be awarded the Hintz Memorial Scholarship, created in 2005 in honor of the late Cass-Clay Creamery Board Chairman Murray Hintz who was instrumental in establishing NMPF’s scholarship program.

Recommended fields of study include but are not limited to Agriculture Communications and Journalism, Animal Health, Animal and/or Human Nutrition, Bovine Genetics, Dairy Products Processing, Dairy Science, Economics, Environmental Science, Food Science, Food Safety, Herd Management, and Marketing and Price Analysis.

Applications must be received no later than Friday, April 16, 2021.  For an application or more information, please visit the NMPF website or email scholarship@nmpf.org.

Dr. Jamie Jonker, NMPF Vice President for Sustainability & Scientific Affairs, was appointed as an ex officio member to the USDA APHIS Veterinary Services’ National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP) Consultation Board in January.

NADPRP was established as part of the 2018 Farm Bill to provide funds to eligible entities to conduct high-value projects that will help prevent the introduction and spread of foreign and emerging animal diseases that threaten U.S. agriculture.

Its board includes 12 voting members and 4 ex officio non-voting members. The United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) coordinates the nomination of ten members, including three State Animal Health Official representatives, four industry representatives (one each from cattle, swine, poultry, and small ruminants), and three academic representatives. USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) will nominate one member, and APHIS’ tribal liaison will nominate one member to represent interests from tribal organizations. The 4 ex officio members are also nominated by USAHA to represent additional animal agricultural industries with interest in participating in NADPRP.

The NADPRP Board is charged with representing the interests of all eligible entities and supporting the program by:

• Developing and consulting with Veterinary Services on annual funding priorities;
• Nominating experts to review and rank proposals;
• Providing input on and approving the program’s annual spending plan; and
• Providing feedback to improve the program’s processes.

More information online at  NADPRP Website.

As part of its digital growth and engagement, the National Dairy FARM Program has developed a webpage tailored to the needs of dairy farmers. The page includes resources, FAQs, and farmer-specific details about each program area, and was designed as an evolving collection of everything a farmer may need regarding FARM.

Also, after a successful relaunch of the digital Farmer Focus series in 2020, FARM and NMPF will continue to profile farmers on a monthly basis through the coming year. In January, Josh Sauter from Cannon Falls, MN shared his secret to resilience and talked about how he and his family have managed challenges in the past, unpredictability in the present, and opportunities in the future.

FARM also saw increased attendance at virtual events and online engagements. More than 100 attendees participated in the most-attended Evaluator H Engagement Hour and during the bi-monthly Quick Convos, views peaked at 300.

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council kicked off a new initiative in January to equip a select group of dairy producers and cooperative/manufacturing staff with the tools necessary to enhance grassroots communication on dairy trade issues to policymakers and the media.

The Dairy Trade Envoys Class of 2021, the first of its kind, includes 28 dairy farmers and industry staff who will help educate federal and state government officials and the media on the importance of U.S. dairy exports and dairy’s stance on various trade policy issues. Undertaking in-depth seminars on the facts of dairy trade, key policy issues, barriers facing U.S. dairy exports, and communicating with the government and the media, the Envoys will expand dairy’s voice and inform sound government trade policies and programs that support U.S. dairy exports.

Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF, welcomed the Class of 2021 on Jan. 19, telling the the group it’s engaged in a “critical effort to create a chorus of voices across the country speaking in unison to provide a very strong message at every level” regarding the value of dairy exports and dairy’s needs in the trade policy sphere.

NMPF staff in January met with the USTR team tackling Canada’s administration of dairy Tariff-Rate Quotas (TRQs) while continuing Congressional outreach to ensure that the new administration and Congress continue the critical task of holding Canada accountable to its commitments under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

After sustained engagement from NMPF and USDEC, the USTR announced Dec. 9 it would initiate official consultations with Canada on its failure to fully implement provisions of USMCA dairy tariff rate quotas. The consultations are the first official step to try to resolve unwarranted restrictions Canada is using to administer its dairy TRQs established by the new Agreement. As USTR noted in its announcement, Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation measures appear to violate several provisions of the USMCA, including its mechanism to set aside and reserve a portion of the quota to processors. USTR also stated that Canada is not providing “fair” and “equitable” procedures and methods for administering its TRQs.

Unless a mutually agreeable solution can be found with Canada through the consultation process, the next step in addressing Canada’s disregard for its USMCA commitments would be for the U.S. to initiate USMCA’s formal dispute settlement procedures.  A dispute settlement case could take a year or more to run its course, making it all the more important to proceed swiftly at this early stage.

The USTR decision came after months of groundwork by NMPF, working closely together with the U.S. Dairy Export Council, with both the administration and Congress. NMPF will continue its work, as further enforcement may be necessary to effectively address Canada’s unfair dairy policies.

NMPF in January joined with a large coalition of U.S. food and agricultural organizations in urging the Senate Finance Committee to confirm Katherine Tai as the new U.S. Trade Representative in light of her strong qualifications and familiarity with the core areas of USTR’s work that are so critical to U.S. food and agricultural exports. The Senate Finance Committee, which must approve her nomination, had not yet scheduled a date for that hearing as the month concluded.

Before Tai’s hearing but after her nomination, NMPF’s CEO Jim Mulhern had the opportunity to raise U.S. dairy farmers’ interests with Tai at a meeting she held with U.S. agriculture trade association CEOs. A summary of that meeting was issued by the Biden team. Mulhern underscored the importance of exports to America’s dairy sector and the need for both strong enforcement of existing details as well as new agreements to best support sales worldwide of the wide variety of products made with U.S. milk.

The monthly margin under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program dropped by $3.09 per cwt in November to $8.78 per cwt in December, mostly driven by lower milk prices, generating payments to producers under the USDA’s flagship risk-management program.

The all-milk price declined by $2.80 per cwt for the month, mostly because of a substantially lower December cheese price. The DMC margin was further lowered by a $0.29 per cwt boost in the feed cost added to it. On a per hundredweight of milk basis, the higher feed cost consisted of cost increases of 19 cents, 7 cents and 3 cents for corn, soybean meal, and alfalfa hay, respectively.

The December margin will generate a payment of $0.72 per cwt for $9.50 per cwt coverage that month; for the year, average DMC payments were $0.73 per cwt per month.

Current futures prices indicate that the monthly all-milk price in 2021 won’t rise above the December level until late summer, while corn and soybean meal prices will remain above December levels at least that long. That means monthly DMC payments will remain above the 2020 average for many months to come.

The National Milk Producers Federation on Jan. 11 called for changes to the so-called Class I fluid milk price mover to recover losses dairy producers have faced from the extreme price disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, part of a suite of policies essential to advancing the well-being of dairy farmers and the entire industry in response to challenges brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are seeking consensus across the dairy industry for changes to the Class I mover that remedy economic damage to dairy farmers who have disproportionately suffered as a result of this pandemic,” said Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF, after a meeting of NMPF’s Executive Committee that discussed policy approaches. “The intent behind the current mover was a revenue-neutral solution to the concerns of fluid milk processors about hedging their price risk. With that balance severely upended due to the pandemic, a modified approach is necessary. We need a solution that provides more equity and balance between farmers and processors.”

The current Class I mover used to price fluid milk in federal milk marketing orders took effect in 2019. It applies a $0.74/cwt adjuster to the monthly average of Class III and IV prices. That replaced the previous Class I formula, which was based on either the Class III or IV price each month, whichever was higher – an approach that worked for farmers but made it more difficult for fluid milk handlers to hedge milk prices using the futures market. The 2019 change was intended to be revenue-neutral and was widely supported across dairy when it was implemented. But the significant gap between Class III and IV prices that has developed during the pandemic has exposed dairy farmers to asymmetrical losses not experienced by processors.

Dairy farmers may lose roughly $800 million in revenues under the current Class I mover, making its re-examination necessary.

The Executive Committee also supported a motion directing the organization to explore, with other industry stakeholders, updates to the pricing formula that better protect dairy producers. The committee also discussed other dairy-pricing improvements as part of an ongoing in-depth NMPF examination of important issues related to Federal Milk Marketing Orders. NMPF leadership directed staff to convene NMPF’s Cheese Pricing Task Force to further refine proposals involving both public and private sector organizations that could help address ongoing imbalances in the pricing of block and barrel cheese.

“These issues are challenging and complex, but also crucial to face if we are to best promote prosperity among dairy farmers, their cooperatives, and the entire industry,” Mulhern said.