NMPF, together with more than a dozen other farm organizations, kicked off the new year with a joint letter sent last Friday to President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, highlighting the importance of trade to America’s farmers and ranchers.

National Milk and organizations representing a broad cross-section of agriculture noted that “securing positive benefits for American farmers, ranchers, and workers in trade will be a priority in your Administration. This includes enforcing existing agreements so that other countries abide by their commitments, as well as expanding market access for U.S. producers through new agreements. Disrupting U.S. agricultural exports would have devastating consequences for our farmers and the many American processing and transportation industries and workers supported by these exports.”

The Jan. 6 joint letter followed NMPF’s own letter to the Trump transition team last month, in which National Milk said past trade agreements have had largely had positive impacts for the U.S. dairy sector, even as the U.S. government “can do a better job of holding our trading partners accountable, so that we grow dairy sales and employment even further.”

NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern noted that farm groups must continue to emphasize that “the health of U.S. agriculture depends on our ability to sell our products outside of the United States. The growth of America’s dairy sector is directly tied to our ability to export. We have a positive trade balance in agriculture, and don’t want to see those hard-earned export markets eroded.”

Mulhern said the U.S. dairy sector exports 14 percent of its milk production, “which last year was worth over $5 billion, in the process generating more than 120,000 jobs in dairy farming, manufacturing and related sectors. Any disruption in exports of dairy and other food products would have devastating consequences for our farmers, and the many American processing and transportation industries and workers supported by these exports.”

NMPF is working with numerous agricultural organizations to elevate the importance of upholding existing U.S. trade agreements, including stricter enforcement of trading partners’ commitments to the United States, and pursuing expanded opportunities for American agricultural exports through beneficial new trade agreements. 

The National Milk Producers Federation is now accepting applications for its National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for academic year 2017-2018. Applications must be received no later than April 7, 2017.

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 U.S. dairy industry at large.

Graduate students pursuing research of direct benefit to milk marketing cooperatives and dairy producers are encouraged to submit an application. Applicants do not need to be members of NMPF cooperatives to qualify.  The top scholarship applicant will be awarded the Hintz Memorial Scholarship, which was created in 2005 in honor of the late Cass-Clay Creamery Board Chairman Murray Hintz.

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.

For an application or more information, please visit the NMPF Scholarship page or call the NMPF office at 703-243-6111.

The new FARM Environmental Stewardship module will be available to interested cooperatives and proprietary processors starting Feb. 13. FARM Environmental Stewardship is the third silo of the FARM Program’s structure, joining the existing animal care and antibiotic use modules within the overall FARM Program.

The existing FARM Program database will have an option for those wishing to opt in to the FARM Environmental Stewardship component, which can be done using a designated “Participant” account.

FARM Environmental Stewardship is based on the Farm Smart calculator: a greenhouse gas, fuel and energy baseline tool that calculates a farm’s footprint per unit of milk produced. As farmers upgrade their technology and produce milk more efficiently, FARM Environmental Stewardship will be able to capture these gains and provide data to milk marketers so they can then promote this positive story to dairy customers.

In preparation for the release of the FARM Environmental Stewardship module, the FARM Program is hosting several webinars, including a session on the science behind FARM Environmental Stewardship, one on Database and Data Entry App Training, and another on best management practices (BMPs). The BMP session will come after the release of the Project Guide in April, which will spotlight ways in which a farm can lower its footprint and, in many cases, improve its economic efficiency.

FARM Environmental Stewardship will pilot-test the app in January, when it will also release the FARM Environmental Stewardship User Guide, in conjunction with the upcoming training webinar. Be sure to check the FARM Environmental Stewardship section of the FARM Program website for new materials. Please contact Ryan Bennett (rbennett@nmpf.org) with any additional questions.

The new FARM Animal Care Version 3.0 went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017. This latest version of FARM includes new documents and guidelines to update and strengthen the program, which now enjoys the support of companies marketing 98% of the nation’s milk supply. These requirements include a signed Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) form, a signed Dairy Cattle Care and Ethics agreement, FARM training in basic stockmanship by all employees, and the phaseout of tail docking.

Revisions to the FARM Program occur every three years and are based on input from farmers, veterinarians and others involved in the FARM Program’s Technical Writing Group, NMPF’s Animal Health and Wellbeing Committee, and recommendations received through a public comment period. The revision process began in May 2015. The NMPF Board of Directors approved the changes at its board meeting last March.

FARM Animal Care is one silo within the broader National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program, alongside the Antibiotic Resistance and the new Environmental Stewardship components. A complete summary of the Version 3.0 updates can be found on the FARM website. 

Cooperatives Working Together assisted member cooperatives in winning 48 contracts to export 4.75 million pounds of American-type cheeses and 3.03 million pounds of butter in the holiday-shortened month of December. The products will go to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Oceania, and will be shipped from December 2016 through March 2017.

The contracts captured in December raise the 2016 CWT-assisted sales totals to 50.32 million pounds of American-type cheese, 12.13 million pounds of butter (82% milkfat) and 21.32 million pounds of whole milk powder destined for customers in 23 countries on five continents. The sales are the equivalent of 892.91 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. Totals are adjusted for cancellations received during the month.

Assisting CWT member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program expands the long-term demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them. This increases demand which 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 online.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) last week reported the November U.S. average all-milk price at $17.60 per hundredweight, a dollar higher than October’s all-milk price. The price jump was a bit stronger than expected, based on the November federal order class prices announced earlier in December.

USDA-NASS last week also reported feed prices for November. The announcements will result in a November monthly Margin Protection Program (MPP) feed cost of $7.62 per hundredweight, 14 cents less than the October monthly MPP feed cost and the fifth-straight drop in the MPP monthly feed cost since June. The monthly MPP margin for November will be $9.98 per hundredweight.

USDA’s current forecast, based on the Dec. 30 CME futures settlements, projects that the MPP margin will remain well above $10.00 per hundredweight through the first half of 2017 and above $11.00 per hundredweight during the second half. USDA’s MPP margin forecasts are updated daily online.

NMPF’s Future for Dairy website also offers a variety of educational resources to help farmers select the desired coverage level.

Key leaders in both the House and Senate have chastised the Food and Drug Administration in the past month for failing to enforce existing food standards that specify products labeled as “milk” have to come from a dairy animal – adding new momentum to NMPF’s longstanding campaign to encourage the FDA to enforce its own regulations.

On Jan. 12, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced her DAIRY PRIDE Act, which would protect the integrity of food standards by prompting FDA to enforce labeling requirements for dairy. The measure would require FDA to issue a guidance for nationwide enforcement of such requirements within 90 days, and mandate that FDA report to Congress two years after the bill’s enactment to hold the agency accountable.

NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern welcomed Baldwin’s legislative approach, adding that “For too long, the FDA has turned a blind eye to the misbranding of imitation dairy products, despite the decades-old federal law that milk comes from animals, not vegetables or nuts.”

Baldwin’s bill comes roughly a month after House leaders Reps. Mike Simpson (R-ID) and Peter Welch (D-VT), and a bipartisan coalition of 30 other cosigners, sent a letter to FDA asking the agency to more aggressively police the improper use of dairy terms for alternative products. Plant-based foods and beverages “are misleading to consumers, harmful to the dairy industry, and a violation of milk’s standard of identity,” the congressional letter said.

Both NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) said the letter will help raise the profile of the issue, as it also mentioned other violations of standards of identity for products such as yogurt, cheese and ice cream that are copied by plant-based sources.

NMPF believes action is needed to defend the integrity of federal food labeling standards and prevent the misbranding of dairy imitators. FDA regulations define milk as a product of a cow, with a similar stipulation for yogurt and cheese.

“Milk should be milk,” said Mulhern, “rather than an industrial-produced, artificially whitened, watery beverage formed with nut or grain pastes and some flavoring and emulsifiers.” He said many popular vegetable imitators such as rice and almond beverages have little protein and widely-varying amounts of vitamins and minerals.

That lack of enforcement in the U.S. market stands in sharp contrast to how the matter is handled in similar nations. While the term “almondmilk” is seen on products sold in the U.S., it is prohibited on the same brand of almond beverage sold in Canada and the United Kingdom.

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Milk Producers Federation today joined 15 other farm organizations in sending a letter to President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Michael Pence highlighting the importance of trade to America’s farmers.

Echoing points made in NMPF’s own letter to the President-elect last month, the producer groups’ Jan. 6 letter stated: “We know that securing positive benefits for American farmers, ranchers, and workers in trade will be a priority in your Administration. This includes enforcing existing agreements so that other countries abide by their commitments, as well as expanding market access for U.S. producers through new agreements. As the Trump Administration assembles its team and policies, U.S. agricultural trade interests must be maintained, not only in existing markets but by expanding access to new markets,” wrote the 16 groups.

NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern noted that farm groups must continue to emphasize that “the health of U.S. agriculture depends on our ability to sell our products outside of the United States. The growth of America’s dairy sector is directly tied to our ability to export. We have a positive trade balance in agriculture, and don’t want to see those hard-earned export markets eroded.”

Mulhern said the U.S. dairy sector exports 14 percent of its milk production, “which last year was worth over $5 billion, in the process generating more than 120,000 jobs in dairy farming, manufacturing and related sectors. Any disruption in exports of dairy and other food products would have devastating consequences for our farmers, and the many American processing and transportation industries and workers supported by these exports.”

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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.

From Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF, and Matt McKnight, Senior Vice President of Market Access, Regulatory and Industry Affairs for USDEC:

ARLINGTON, VA – “America’s dairy farmers and processors welcome the opportunity to work closely with Robert Lighthizer as the new U.S. Trade Representative. The role of the U.S. Trade Representative is critical to successful U.S. engagement with growing global markets. Mr. Lighthizer’s previous experiences as Deputy USTR, Chief of Staff for the Senate Finance Committee, and his direct private sector engagement in enforcing trade rules on behalf of his clients will serve him well in forging a path forward on trade policy that will benefit this country.

“The U.S. dairy industry, like most other agricultural sectors across America, has significantly benefited from the agricultural provisions of prior U.S. free trade agreements. At the same time, however, we face a growing wave of nontariff barriers that threaten to impede overseas sales. Our NAFTA partners epitomize both sides of that story: Our dairy agreement with Mexico has created an export market worth well over $1 billion a year, while on the other side of the border Canada has at every opportunity decided to flout its dairy trade commitments to the U.S.

“A focus on preserving and growing what is working well, while cracking down further on what is not, will help to expand global markets for U.S. dairy farmers and the companies that turn their milk into nutritious dairy products shipped all over the world. Given that every $1 billion in U.S. dairy exports translates into over 23,000 jobs in the dairy sector and related industries, expanding dairy sales abroad is a strong job-creation strategy.

“USDEC and NMPF look forward to continuing our dialogue with the incoming Administration on the importance of pursuing well-negotiated trade agreements that bolster our ability to serve consumers in foreign 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 U.S. dairy producers and the cooperatives they collectively 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 www.nmpf.org.

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.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, disability, national origin, race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, marital status, military status, and arrest or conviction record.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new congressional effort to prod federal regulators to crack down on the inappropriate labeling of products designed to imitate milk drew support today from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), which thanked lawmakers for speaking out on the issue.