Members of Family Dairies USA, Manitowoc Milk Producers Cooperative, and Milwaukee Cooperative Milk Producers successfully voted on December 18, 2012 to merge the three cooperatives and create FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative, which began operating as a unified entity on January 1, 2013. The new cooperative’s headquarters is in Madison, WI.

FarmFirst will represent more than 5,000 farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana through policy bargaining, dairy marketing services, laboratory testing opportunities, and industry promotion.

Dennis Donohue, general manager of Manitowoc Milk Producers Cooperative, will serve as the General Manager of FarmFirst. Donohue will continue to serve as the cooperative’s representative on the NMPF Board of Directors. Peter Kleiman, who owns and operates a 100-cow, 800-acre operation in Wilson, Mich., was elected president of the FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative board of directors. David Cooper, General Manager of Family Dairies USA, will serve as assistant general manager, and Jim Bird, General Manager of Milwaukee Cooperative Milk Producers, will assume the role of manager and director of lab services and special projects.

Under FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative, the combined member representation will be divided into a total of nine districts, based on membership within each district. The current directors from each of the three cooperatives will transition into the new organization, helping ensure consistency in leadership and membership voice.

Family Dairies USA Milk Program and the Fox Valley Quality Control Laboratory will continue to operate as subsidiaries of the new cooperative.

To learn more about FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative, please visit their website at www.farmfirstdairycooperative.com.

The 2013 Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program got off to a record start in January, receiving 160 requests for assistance from 10 CWT member cooperatives. That total included 128 assistance requests for cheese, 28 for butter, and two each for whole milk powder (WMP) and anhydrous milkfat.

After doing a comprehensive economic review of the requests received each week, four were accepted by CWT at the level of support members had requested. For the remainder, CWT advised members that the level of assistance they asked for was too high, based on market fundamentals. CWT determined that assistance should not be necessary on two of the requests submitted.

Of the 154 counter offers CWT made to members, 66 cheese offers were accepted, bringing the total cheese sales assisted to 19.3 million pounds. Twenty butter offers were accepted, taking total sales to 9.8 million pounds, and two WMP offers totaling 88,185 pounds were accepted. This was the equivalent of 391 million pounds of milk, or the same as the annual production of 18,600 cows.

The product was destined for 23 countries on six continents and will be delivered from January through July.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reintroduced into the Senate the same farm bill that previously passed the full Senate last summer, as a signal that the chamber plans to move aggressively on passing a new farm bill in 2013.

The 2013 farm bill has been formally designated as S. 10, making it part of a short list of priority pieces of legislation awaiting action in the Senate. NMPF applauded Reid’s decision, saying that “it recognizes that the dairy policy reforms contained in the bill, along with other provisions in the measure, passed with overwhelming, bipartisan support last summer. The bill’s Dairy Security Act will give farmers a better safety net while reducing taxpayer costs at a time when Congress is searching for ways to trim federal spending,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF.

“We look forward to working with Senator Reid, as well as with Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and new ranking minority member Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), as the Committee updates the Farm Bill in the coming weeks. We will continue our bipartisan efforts in both the Senate and House to get a five-year farm bill passed that provide our producers the security and stability they need.”

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officially announced the terms for the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program extension, as included in the fiscal cliff bill passed on January 1, 2013. The payment rate for September 2012 milk production is $0.59 per hundredweight, the last month in Fiscal Year 2012. The payment rate for October 2012 is approximately $0.02 per hundredweight, and there is no payment for November 2012.

Before the October MILC payment can be issued, dairy farmers must complete a new Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) form for 2013. The new form, CCC-933 Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Certification and Consent to Disclosure of Tax Information, must be completed by producers before they can receive payments for a variety of programs administered by FSA and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The AGI limit for dairy is $500,000 for off-farm income. There is no AGI limit for on-farm income.

Dairy operations may select a production start month in FY 2013 other than October 2012. If they do, they must visit their local FSA office between February 1 and February 28, 2013, also known as a relief period.

For more information about MILC updates, please visit the USDA website. Information is also posted on the NMPF website, including NMPF’s own approximate projections for possible payments.

When the dust settles after each presidential election, political analysts often trip over themselves trying to figure out the meaning of the choices voters made, in both local and national campaigns. It’s debatable as to whether there were many clear take-aways from the recent 2012 election, but if anything obvious emerged, it was a need to address the politics and policy of the nation’s immigration laws.

After the election outcome in several states turned on the proportion of Latino voters giving a margin of victory to President Obama, Republican political strategists have recognized that the party’s implacable opposition to a reasonable reform of immigration policies – one that moves beyond just “enforcement only” – is the politically prudent path. Meanwhile, Democrats also recognize the importance of this issue to the growing Hispanic population in America. Not only is fixing this contentious issue good politics, it also will help shore up the economics of importance business sectors, ranging from construction and hospitality, to agriculture – especially dairy farming.

As a result of this emerging consensus on the need to act, leaders of both parties, including President Obama himself, have pledged in the past month to focus on a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. This shift in tone and outlook is welcome news for America’s dairy farmers, who, along with many other agricultural employers, have been pushing for nearly a decade for labor policy reforms that will favorably affect their current and future workforce.

The National Milk Producers Federation is one of these farm groups, who have recently formed a new alliance, the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC), to marshal the resources of 11 national and regional organizations dedicated to reforming immigration policy. The AWC membership has forged a consensus proposal to make badly-need changes in laws affecting the farm sector, as part of any large immigration reform package that moves this year through Congress.

The AWC proposal includes both an opportunity for adjustment in legal status to be earned by current agricultural employees who presently lack such status, and a program to ensure an adequate farm workforce in the future. Also, unlike current programs such as the H-2A visa, the AWC proposal is meant to ensure that all types of food producers—including both those with seasonal labor needs and ones with year-round labor needs (i.e., dairy farmers) —have access to the workforce they need to remain productive and competitive.

It’s one of the ironies of the national economy in the past five years that, even while the unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high, business owners in some areas have trouble recruiting a suitable labor force. The fact is that farmers and ranchers have long experienced difficulty in obtaining workers, as the jobs they offer are physically demanding and conducted year-round in all types of weather. To most U.S. residents seeking employment, these conditions, which are typical of dairy farms, are not attractive.

A number of studies document this fact, including one conducted in 2009 by NMPF and Texas A&M University, which found that U.S. dairies employed 138,000 full-time equivalent workers, of which 57,000, or 41%, were foreigners. The NMPF survey found that if federal labor policies were to result in the loss of just half of those 57,000 workers, an additional 66,000 workers would also be lost, due to the closure of some dairy farms, and the resulting multiplier effect of fewer jobs in grain and fertilizer production and sales, veterinary services, milk hauling, and related agricultural service jobs. This would produce an economic loss of $11 billion.

Recognizing the need to achieve a once-in-a-generation public policy reform, and actually getting it done, are two very different things. The 2012 farm bill is a good example of how the best intentions can be thwarted at the last minute by the forces of inertia. But in addition to pushing again on the farm bill in 2013, NMPF views the immigration policy reform opportunity as incredibly necessary, and increasingly likely.

From Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to put the farm bill near the top of the list of things to do in 2013 is good news for America’s dairy farmers, who need leaders in the Senate and House to renew their push this year for a better farm bill.

“Senator Reid yesterday introduced the 2013 farm bill as S. 10, making it part of a short list of priority pieces of legislation for action in the Senate. Reid’s decision recognizes that the dairy policy reforms contained in the bill, along with other provisions in the measure, passed with overwhelming, bipartisan support last summer. The bill’s Dairy Security Act will give farmers a better safety net while reducing taxpayer costs at a time when Congress is searching for ways to trim federal spending.

“We look forward to working with Senator Reid, as well as with Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and new ranking minority member Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), as the Committee updates the Farm Bill in the coming weeks. We will continue our bipartisan efforts in both the Senate and House to get a five-year farm bill passed that provides our producers the security and stability they need.”

 

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 30 cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of more than 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.

Farm Groups Coordinating Efforts to Capitalize on Opportunity to Reform Immigration Policies

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has joined a broad cross-section of organizations representing agricultural employers in a collective effort to reform federal immigration policies.

NMPF said today it is one of the founding members of the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC). AWC’s goal is to seek legislation that ensures America’s farms, ranches and other agricultural operations have access to a stable and skilled workforce – an effort in which NMPF has been engaged for much of the past decade.

“After seven years of hard but fruitless work on this issue, dairy farmers have a rare opportunity in 2013 to achieve a comprehensive solution to the immigration policy challenge. We see our participation in this coalition as the best chance to shape federal policies that will ensure farm employers’ continued access to both existing and future dairy workers,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF.

The AWC has been formed to move beyond previous immigration reform efforts. In particular, the Coalition, recognizing that existing programs and previous proposals have proved unworkable, is putting forward a framework that includes both an earned adjustment in status for current experienced farm workers, and a program to ensure that producers continue to have access to a workforce as current agricultural employees move on to other jobs.

A key to the framework proposed by AWC will be ensuring that it meets the needs of all of agriculture—both those employers with seasonal labor needs and those who provide year-round employment opportunities, such as dairy farms.

“We have tried to retrofit the H2A visa program for dairy farmers, but that effort was a more limited approach. Now, we have the opportunity to do something bigger and comprehensive, with a unique coalition that together will be able to do more than each of our groups alone could do,” said Jaime Castaneda, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives & Trade Policy for NMPF.

American agriculture as we know it would not be possible without the contributions of more than 1.5 million hired workers each year. Beyond the farm gate, each of these workers supports two to three full-time jobs in the food processing, transportation, farm equipment, marketing, retail and other sectors. Ensuring that farmers, ranchers and growers have access to the workers they need to maintain their productivity and competitiveness will help support continued growth in employment across the economy and in areas far removed from farm country.

Additional information on the AWC can be found on its website: www.agworkforcecoalition.org.

 

About the Agriculture Workforce Coalition
The Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) brings together organizations representing the diverse needs of agricultural employers across the country. AWC serves as the unified voice of agriculture in the effort to ensure that America’s farmers, ranchers and growers have access to a stable and secure workforce.

To help achieve this goal, the AWC has developed a framework that presents a viable solution to agriculture’s labor needs. The proposal includes both an earned adjustment in status for current agricultural employees who presently lack legal status and a program to ensure an adequate farm workforce in the future. Also, unlike current programs such as H2A, the AWC proposal is meant to ensure that all types of producers—including both those with seasonal labor needs and ones with year-round labor needs—have access to the workforce they need to remain productive and competitive.

 

Founding members of AWC:
American Farm Bureau Federation
American Nursery & Landscape Association
Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association
National Council of Agricultural Employers
National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
National Milk Producers Federation
USA Farmers
U.S. Apple Association
United Fresh Produce Association
Western Growers Association
Western United Dairymen

 

Coalition partners:
Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform

 

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 30 cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of more than 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.

In recognition of their commitment to the dairy industry, managing their farm for future generations, and being active in their local community, Blue Diamond Dairy was named Minnesota’s 2012 Producer of the Year by the Minnesota Milk Producers Association.

Located in Melrose, MN, Blue Diamond Dairy is operated by Glen and Sadie Frericks, who served as officers on NMPF’s 2012 Young Cooperator (YC) Advisory Council, where they represented NMPF member cooperative Land O’Lakes. The Frericks milk 75 cows and own a small flock of laying hens, as well as an assortment of other farms animals. The operation is called a “hybrid dairy” because the herd lives and grazes outside in the warm months and moves inside during the freezing months, eating mixed ration.

“We are proud of the initiative and leadership that Glen and Sadie have shown in all aspects of their life,” commented NMPF President & CEO Jerry Kozak. “They are an excellent example of the difference young producers can make in the industry, and we hope that they will continue to lead into the future.”

To learn more about life on Blue Diamond Dairy, visit their blog. A video of their farm also helps tell the story of the family for whom dairying has become a passion and lifestyle.

NMPF is now accepting applications for its National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for academic year 2013-2014.

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 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, May 3, 2013. For an application or more information, please visit the NMPF website or call the NMPF office at 703-243-6111.

Last month, NMPF released a revised version of its Spanish residue prevention manual Prevención de residuos de fármacos en la leche y la carne for 2013. As an area of focus for the National Dairy FARM Program^TM, the manual can be found on the FARM Program’s website. This version was translated to Spanish from the revised 2013 Milk and Dairy Beef Drug Residue Prevention Manual, which was released in the fall.

The Prevención de residuos de fármacos en la leche y la carne is the Spanish version of the FARM Program’s concise review of appropriate antibiotic use in dairy animals. It’s a quick resource to review those antibiotics approved for dairy animals and can also be used as an educational tool for farm managers as they develop their on-farm best management practices necessary to avoid milk and meat residues.

Additions to the 2013 version include a section on avoiding potential residue violations from extra-label drug use in an unapproved class of cattle, cephalosporin extra-label use prohibitions, as well as an updated drug and test kit list. The 2013 manual includes a certificate of participation that can be signed by a producer and his/her veterinarian to demonstrate their commitment to the proper use of antibiotics.

“We know that there is increased attention to the use of medicines in livestock, and in order to maintain the ability to use those products, we have to demonstrate that we are using them properly,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “We also know that a significant portion of the people who care for dairy cows speak Spanish, and we need to make this information available in Spanish as well as English.”

The Spanish manual was sponsored by Charm Sciences, IDEXX, and Pfizer Animal Health.

U.S. dairy suppliers have been shut out of the Russian market since September 2010. But President Obama’s Dec. 14, 2012, signing of legislation granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia represents a major step toward reopening business with one of the world’s largest dairy buyers.

The president’s action followed successful bipartisan votes by the House and Senate in the lame-duck session of Congress that began Nov. 13. NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) had actively supported PNTR for Russia and applauded the government’s actions to put the bill into law.

“Without PNTR, Russia couldn’t be compelled to apply its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments to the United States,” said USDEC President Tom Suber. “PNTR means the United States can now utilize the full WTO toolbox to help resolve issues blocking U.S. dairy trade. It also means Russia has a reason to return to the bargaining table to find a compromise to their export certification and plant inspection demands that triggered the ban in the first place.”

“We are consistently shipping more than 13 percent of the milk solids produced annually in the United States to buyers beyond our borders,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “Given the strides made by the U.S. dairy sector in meeting the world’s dairy needs, there is no reason—outside of nontariff barriers to trade—why we should not be a player in the Russian market.”

USDEC and NMPF have worked extensively with the U.S. government for years to resolve certification issues with Russian authorities and to help provide a firm basis for restoring access for U.S. dairy exporters, but talks broke down in the shadow of the PNTR issue.

Annual Russian imports of milk powder, cheese, butterfat, whey protein and lactose averaged 434,000 tons, valued at $1.6 billion, from 2009-2011. Through three quarters of 2012, the nation was on track to hit similar numbers by year-end.

On December 20, 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a final rule establishing general regulations for improving the traceability of U.S. livestock moving interstate. Under final animal disease traceability rule, unless specifically exempted, livestock moved interstate would have to be officially identified and accompanied by an interstate certificate of veterinary inspection or other documentation, such as owner-shipper statements or brand certificates.

NMPF’s initial reaction is that the rule is a good start, but it does not meet the organization’s policy of requiring RFID tags and 48 hour traceability. The animal disease traceability final rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register on January 9, 2013.

NMPF had commented on the proposed rule, expressing support for mandatory animal identification and disease traceability to serve as a collective industry insurance policy against catastrophic animal disease outbreaks. The dairy industry has taken a strong proactive stance in advocating mandatory animal identification and disease traceability.

The rule contained the following important information for dairy producers:

• All dairy cattle females, regardless of age, and all male dairy cattle (including dairy steers) that are born after March 11, 2013, will be required to be officially identified (by a device or method approved by USDA) prior to interstate movement.
  o The Final Rule defines dairy cattle as: “All cattle, regardless of age or sex or current use, that are of a breed(s) used to produce milk or other dairy products for human consumption, including, but not limited to, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Milking Shorthorn, and Red and Whites.”
• Individual animal identification can be done by a variety of options approved by USDA, including RFID and “brite” tags.
  o Beginning March 11, 2015, only identification devices beginning with 840 or other prefix representing U.S. territories will be recognized as official identification.
  o NMPF policy supports the use of official 840-RFID tags for dairy cattle identification.
• All dairy cattle moving interstate must be accompanied by Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection or other documentation as agreed to by the receiving state.

For more information on USDA’s final animal disease traceability rule, the following documents are available online:

• The final rule to be published in the Federal Register.
• USDA’s animal disease traceability general standards.
• USDA’s traceability FAQ.

Please contact NMPF’s Jamie Jonker with any questions.