WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Milk Producers Federation and the International Dairy Foods Association urged members of Congress this week to insist that the United States request a more thorough analysis of a World Health Organization (WHO) proposal seeking to discourage parents from feeding toddlers milk and certain dairy products.

At the beginning of the year, the WHO issued “Ending Inappropriate Marketing of Foods for Infants and Young Children,” a guidance document urging the prohibition of the promotion and marketing of various milk products for children up to age three.

“The WHO guidance document is a de facto criticism of all milk consumption by toddlers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF.  “This flies in the face of all credible, international nutrition research, and would confuse consumers across the globe.”

“The WHO guidance should be focusing on how to encourage the serving of nutrient-dense foods to provide young children and toddlers with a nutritious basis for meals and snacks,” said Connie Tipton, IDFA president and CEO. “It should not restrict the flow of important information regarding the nutritional benefits of dairy foods for young children to parents, caregivers and healthcare providers.”

In a letter sent to members of the House and Senate, both organizations want the U.S. government to insist that the WHO revise this document to rectify the misleading suggestion that dairy is inappropriate for young children. The proposal was modified somewhat in late March, but the recent revisions still run counter to established science that highlights milk’s unique nutritional attributes.

The groups ask Congress to insist that the WHO conduct “a much more thorough analysis of the scientific basis for and potential consequences of this proposal before the WHO pushes forward with further action in this area,” the letter said.  “Until that type of careful scrutiny and revision takes place, we urge the U.S. to insist on the importance of placing this proposal on hold.”

If the guidance were adopted, it could have negative health effects on children worldwide. It also counters ample scientific evidence that dairy plays a significant and positive role in children’s diets, as seen in the recently updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the inclusion of dairy foods in programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

NMPF and IDFA are part of a coalition that objects to the WHO proposal. Among their efforts, NMPF and IDFA have met with numerous U.S. agencies and submitted detailed comments to the Department of Health and Human Services, the lead federal agency on the matter.

“This is of great concern to the U.S. dairy industry because the policies proposed contradict decades of federal nutrition policy, which recognizes dairy foods as safe, nutrient-rich foods to be encouraged for growing children under three years of age,” the letter argued.

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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 550 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 run nearly 600 plant operations, 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.

ARLINGTON, VA – Several important improvements in the new safety net program for dairy farmers were announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, following recommendations made to the agency by the National Milk Producers Federation to enhance the value of the dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP).

“We very much appreciate these steps by USDA to implement administrative changes that will improve the program’s usefulness to dairy farmers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF.  “USDA is constrained in what it can do to strengthen MPP, but the program must continue to evolve based on the experiences of NMPF’s members and others in the dairy industry.”

Since MPP’s enactment in 2014, NMPF has worked with USDA to make the program a more flexible and effective national safety net for all of America’s dairy farmers. Mulhern said the program remains a work in progress, given the challenging farm milk price situation facing dairy farmers in 2015 and this year. “We will continue to work with USDA and the Congress to further improve and strengthen the program’s effectiveness,” he said.

One change announced by USDA today will ensure that all farms enrolled in the MPP will receive catastrophic coverage at the basic $4 per hundredweight margin level on 90% of their production history – with the ability to purchase buy-up coverage at less than 90% of their history.

“Decoupling coverage options under MPP improves the ability of the program to offer effective risk management options to dairy farmers,” said Mulhern.

Mulhern anticipates that decoupling the coverage options will increase dairy farmer use of the program by not reducing benefits to farmers who elect to purchase supplemental coverage, and by providing more flexibility in coverage design. For $100 a year, dairy producers receive basic $4 protection that covers 90% of their milk production. At higher premium levels, farmers can protect from 25% to 90% of production history with margin coverage levels from $4.50 to $8, in 50 cent increments.

This change is effective for the current 2016 coverage year. While a majority of farmers using the program in 2016 are protected at the $4 level, for those who bought up a higher level of margin, but did not cover 90% of their milk production, this change ensures that they are still receiving catastrophic protection on the maximum level of production allowed by the MPP.

The USDA also announced a rule change to allow a farm’s production history to be restructured in order to accommodate new family members joining a particular dairy operation. This will accommodate the intergenerational transfer of production history for children, grandchildren, and their spouses to join a dairy operation.  Any dairy operation already enrolled in MPP that had an intergenerational transfer occur will have an opportunity during the 2017 annual coverage election period to increase the operation’s production history up to 4 million pounds per year.

The next enrollment period begins on July 1, 2016, and ends on Sept. 30, 2016.  Each participating dairy operation is authorized one intergenerational transfer at any time of its choosing until 2018.

“This measure will help younger farmers, as they become part of a multi-generation dairy operation, to more fully use MPP.  That will help families keep their farms into the future,” Mulhern said.

The rule released today also codifies a policy change made earlier this year giving dairy farmers the opportunity to pay their premium through additional options, such as a periodic milk check deduction handled by their cooperative.

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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 National Milk Producers Federation, U.S. Dairy Export Council and the International Dairy Foods Association asked members of Congress in a letter today to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement while also addressing a number of critical implementation and enforcement issues that are key determinants in how the agreement is likely to work in practice. As part of this, the dairy associations urged the federal government to ensure that the other participating countries adhere to their respective commitments within the pact.

The TPP is an historic pact between 12 countries containing features that will help America’s dairy farmers and processors in the future. After months of analysis and deliberation, all three organizations have endorsed the pact, saying the agreement presents, on balance, a step forward for U.S. dairy farmers and companies that process and market their milk.

In the letter, the three dairy groups outlined the benefits the agreement could bring to the industry, such as improving the rules of the road governing trade throughout the TPP region. For instance the letter addresses TPP’s ground-breaking commitments on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues, as well as geographical indications (GIs) and common food names.

“The geographical indications provisions in TPP, for the first time, establish a more equitable process for considering GIs and emphasize the importance of safeguarding usage of common food names,” the letter said. “This is a key priority for our industry as we face the European Union’s global efforts to wield GIs as nontariff barriers to trade in order to limit competition and market access from U.S. suppliers.”

However, the three organizations also noted several issues that need to be addressed during the TPP’s implementation process, which are vital to ensure that the agreement lives up to its potential to create improved international opportunities. The letter asks Congress to insist that both Canada and Japan be held to their own commitments – both existing ones and new ones under the agreement. It also highlighted the importance of the United States carefully ensuring active enforcement of its own market access provisions.

“TPP can help support the continued growth of a robust U.S. dairy industry, provided not only that the commitments captured in the text of the agreement are fully implemented, but also that countries are not allowed to backtrack on existing market access agreements to offset what has been granted via TPP,” the letter continued.

“The fine print in implementing TPP really matters. We are endorsing the outlines of the agreement, but will continue to insist that the terms agreed to need to be followed by the other countries in this agreement. The U.S. needs to be continually vigilant with the TPP signatories and really hold their feet to the fire both now and down the road,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF.

“The SPS and GI commitments in particular should help keep in check the ability of countries to erode existing and future market access for U.S. dairy exporters through arbitrary, unjustified and oftentimes sudden regulatory determinations,” said Tom Suber, president of USDEC. “But for them to live up to their potential we need to ensure our trading partners realize we’re serious about their compliance with these pieces.”

“The successful negotiation and implementation of ambitious trade agreements like TPP are vital to the future growth of America’s dairy industry,” said Connie Tipton, IDFA president and CEO. “For those benefits to be realized, however, it’s imperative that our trading partners be held accountable and live up to their current and future commitments.”

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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 550 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 run nearly 600 plant operations, 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 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 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.

At the beginning of the year, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a draft guidance document urging the prohibition of the promotion and marketing of milk products to children up to age 3. NMPF has engaged in extensive efforts to counter the premise of the document, which runs contrary to ample scientific evidence of the benefits of dairy foods in young children’s diets. The proposal was modified in late March, in some areas addressing points NMPF had sought changes to, but the revisions are not enough to address NMPF’s concerns with this proposal.

The WHO proposal, titled “Ending Inappropriate Marketing of Foods for Infants and Young Children,” also conflicts with U.S. nutritional recommendations such as the recently-updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and the inclusion of dairy foods in programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

“The WHO guidance document goes beyond the appropriate recommendations of encouraging breast feeding for infants, and instead is a de facto criticism of all milk consumption by toddlers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF.  “This flies in the face of all credible, international nutrition research, and would confuse consumers across the globe.”

NMPF joined a coalition of several other organizations to object to this proposal, highlighting both the nutritional and trade problems that could result from WHO pushing adoption of the guidance around the world. Among its efforts, NMPF met with numerous U.S. agencies and submitted detailed comments to the Department of Health and Human Services, the lead federal agency on the matter. These efforts, coupled with support from congressional offices, helped form the official U.S. comments to the WHO that incorporated many of the concerns NMPF and its coalition partners had cited.

NMPF wants the U.S. government to insist that the WHO revise this document to address the egregiously incorrect suggestion that dairy is inappropriate for young children. Following consultations with member countries this Friday, the WHO is currently planning to move this document forward for adoption by the World Health Assembly in May. However, National Milk believes more time is needed for consultations and evaluations of scientific evidence to ensure that any final guidance document recognizes the strong nutritional benefits of dairy to young children.

New biosecurity resources to help farmers prevent the spread of animal diseases are now available, thanks to ongoing efforts by NMPF to marshal additional tools for farmers.

In 2014, the NMPF Animal Health and Wellbeing Committee identified the need for educational resources on Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) for dairy farmers and veterinarians. NMPF approached the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other groups about the possibility of developing such materials. This resulted in a cooperative agreement from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to the Center for Food Security and Public Health (Iowa State University) with contributions from NMPF, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, and the National Cattleman's Beef Association, for the development of a variety of FMD educational resources.

An FMD poster and pocket guide were published last September. Three new biosecurity resources have recently become available:

• General biosecurity in English and Spanish
• Visitors with animal biosecurity  in English and Spanish
• Visitors without animal contact biosecurity in English and Spanish

The posters are also available on the Secure Milk Supply website.

The deadline to apply to the NMPF National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for academic year 2016-2017 is this Friday, April 8.

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 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 website or call the NMPF office at 703-243-6111.

Cooperatives Working Together member cooperatives last month received 31 contracts to sell 3.946 million pounds of cheese, 2.535 million pounds of butter and 5.589 million pounds of whole milk powder. The products will go to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, Oceania and South America. The product will be shipped from March through September 2016.

For the first three months of 2016, CWT assisted members in capturing sales contracts totaling 12.361 million pounds of American-type cheese, 7.716 million pounds of butter (82% milkfat) and 14.676 million pounds of whole milk powder going to customers in 14 countries on five continents. The sales are the equivalent of 394.845 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Assisting 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 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 on the CWT website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NMPF’s forecast for 2016 MPP margins, based on late-March milk and feed futures prices, indicates that nearby margins may dip below the $8 threshold before strengthening in the latter half of 2016. The USDA reported last week that the Jan.-Feb. 2016 margin was $8.01, a penny above the MPP payment threshold. As evidenced by the wide confidence interval, a high degree of uncertainty remains in milk and new crop feed prices.

In March, the USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) released Dairy Cattle Management Practices in the United States, 2014, the first report from its Dairy 2014 study. Dairy 2014 is NAHMS sixth study of the U.S. dairy industry. The study was conducted in 17 of the nation’s major dairy states, covering 76.7 percent of U.S. dairy operations and 80.3 percent of U.S. dairy cows. USDA will release additional reports in the next year.

A few highlights of the report include:

• Rolling herd average (RHA) milk production was 19,932 lb./cow. RHA milk production for grazing and organic operations was similar (14,513 and 14,758 lb./cow, respectively).
• Overall, 47.5 percent of operations had accessed the Internet for dairy information during 2013. Internet use generally increased as herd size increased, with 31.6 percent of very small operations (fewer than 30 cows) accessing the Internet for dairy information compared with 89.7 percent of large operations (500 or more cows).
• The percentage of operations that administered vaccines to cows increased as herd size increased. Overall, 73.8 percent of operations administered any vaccine to cows. More than half of operations administered vaccines against BVD (68.0 percent), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (60.2 percent), parainfluenza type 3 (55.8 percent), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (54.8 percent), or leptospirosis (51.5 percent).

In reaction to public health concerns about the effectiveness of antibiotics, the Obama Administration announced the establishment in March 2015 of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. The Advisory Council was formed to provide advice, information, and recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services about programs intended to support Administration efforts to reduce the spread of antibiotic- resistance bacteria.  NMPF has monitored this initiative and participated in several meetings to ensure that dairy industry efforts to use antibiotics judiciously are incorporated into the process of assessing best practices in the future.

The Advisory Council met on March 30-31, 2016, to finalize its first report “Report1: Initial Assessment of the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic –Resistant Bacteria.”  The report contains a wide array of goals and recommendations to combat antimicrobial resistance in the United States with international collaborations through a One Health approach. One Health is a multiple disciplinary approach of human and veterinary medicine to address such issues as antimicrobial resistance.

The report contains wide-ranging goals and recommendations for antimicrobial stewardship in both humans and animals. For the U.S. dairy industry, these goals and recommendations fall in four focus areas: (1) on-farm antibiotic use data collection; (2) increasing antimicrobial stewardship in food and companion animals (including additional veterinary oversight); (3) additional research in the flow of antimicrobial resistance through the environment (from use in animals to people and use in people to animals); and (4) development of new disease detection, prevention, control and treatment options (vaccines, new antibiotics, alternative therapeutics, etc.).

For more than 25 years, the U.S. dairy industry has focused educational efforts on the judicious use of antimicrobial drugs through the annual publication of a Best Practices Manual. The 2016 edition of the National Dairy FARM Program: Farmers Assuring Responsible Management™  Milk and Dairy Beef Drug Residue Prevention Manual developed by NMPF is the primary educational tool for dairy farm managers throughout the country on the judicious and responsible use of antibiotics serving as the industry’s antimicrobial stewardship guide.