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NMPF FMMO Modernization Comments Put Farmers First

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF, the largest U.S. dairy-farmer organization and the industry’s premier policy voice in Washington, submitted its final, formal legal “brief” on their behalf for Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) modernization to the USDA on March 29.

The NMPF brief emphasized that those farmers are the reason the system exists — and that, by law, their priorities are pre-eminent in USDA consideration of a final plan.

“Our proposed package of proposals to the Federal Milk Marketing Order align perfectly with its mission and purpose, which were designed and intended to put farmers first,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “We’ve spent nearly three years painstakingly assembling the broad consensus among dairy farmers that modernization of the system needs to succeed. Our approach is careful and comprehensive, and it benefits farmers of all regions and types of operations.”

NMPF’s proposals include:

  • Returning to the “higher of” Class I mover;
  • Discontinuing the use of barrel cheese in the protein component price formula;
  • Extending the current 30-day reporting limit to 45 days on forward priced sales on nonfat dry milk and dry whey to capture more exports sales in the USDA product price reporting;
  • Updating milk component factors for protein, other solids and nonfat solids in the Class III and Class IV skim milk price formulas;
  • Developing a process to ensure make-allowances are reviewed more frequently through legislation directing USDA to conduct mandatory plant-cost studies every two years;
  • Updating dairy product manufacturing allowances contained in the USDA milk price formulas; and
  • Updating the Class I differential price system to reflect changes in the cost of delivering bulk milk to fluid processing plants.

In contrast to proposals driven by narrow self-interest, NMPF’s package of proposals reflect its broad-based membership and consensus-driven approach, which resulted in unanimous approval from its Board of Directors last year. With that unity unbroken, Doud said he looked forward to USDA’s consideration of NMPF’s solid hearing record which was built along with its recently submitted brief, as well as the department’s recommended decision expected at the beginning of July.

“NMPF has taken seriously its role as the policy leader for U.S. dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own, and we continue to draw on the strength of our members,” he said. “Today we’ve taken another big step toward modernization. We continue to look forward to its successful conclusion.”

FMMO Modernization Must Put Farmers First

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

This week the arduous process of modernizing the Federal Milk Marketing Order system reached another milestone, with participating organizations submitting their final statements summing up their arguments for why USDA should adopt their proposals as part of a new federal order.

NMPF continues its leadership, offering the most detailed, comprehensive plan to USDA. This process has never been about  who has the louder voice. From the very start it has been about putting in the work to understand the purpose and function of federal orders and painstakingly assembled the consensus support and careful approach that any plan needs to succeed.

It’s also because we’ve crafted our plan following principles that align thoroughly with the FMMO mission and purpose. In upcoming weeks, as USDA considers competing proposals, we expect that some of our opponents will attempt to muddy the waters, offering “solutions” that are incompatible with how federal milk marketing orders are meant to function – or, even worse, offering ideas that intentionally undermine core principles of the FMMO system. So, some principles for everyone to keep in mind as USDA moves forward.

The FMMO system is designed and intended to put farmers first. This isn’t just NMPF, the nation’s largest dairy-farmer organization, touting its own interests. It’s the literal legal language of a landmark interpretation of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act, which authorizes federal milk marketing orders. Under this statute, the “principal purposes” of the system is “to raise the price of agricultural products and to establish an orderly system for marketing them.” Court language further emphasizes that the law’s purpose is to protect milk producers. Specifically, the “‘essential purpose” of FMMOs is “to raise producer prices” and thus “ensure that the benefits and burdens of the milk market are fairly and proportionately shared by all dairy farmers.”

This principle is fundamental to every other consideration. Any revamp of orders must focus on producers, and it needs to benefit all producers fairly. That’s been the bedrock of our proposals, and its mission is well-served by the balance we’ve achieved.

The FMMO system is meant to encourage the orderly marketing of milk. Emphasizing the need for an “orderly system” – a well-functioning market is meant to benefit both milk producers and consumers. Again, the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act allowing federal orders is established to “provide, in the interests of producers and consumers, an orderly flow of the supply thereof to market … to avoid unreasonable fluctuations in supplies and prices.”

That’s important to remember when considering approaches to the make-allowance, the Class I price surface, component pricing, and the other parts of our proposal. Along with the first priority of helping farmers, NMPF’s plans ensure an orderly market that serves consumers well without being unduly disruptive of any one component or adding disproportionate hardship to other key actors on the milk marketing system.

Arguments that boil down to “whatever gets me the most money” don’t seriously build consensus. And consensus is a necessity.

NMPF’s proposals for modernization were the most carefully balanced proposals presented at the hearing, but they were only about one-quarter of all proposed amendments to the order. Several competing proposals had some merit, especially from the perspectives of the organizations submitting them. What set our proposals apart was a genuine attempt to make separate pieces work together for the collective benefit of all dairy farmers – other proposals fell short in achieving that.

Even more disappointing were processor-led proposals that had no consistency or principle other than boosting processor bottom lines – a direct contradiction of the FMMO mission. These short-sighted ideas would, in many instances, lead to the unnecessary failure of numerous dairy farms and create disorderly markets.

And following on that, one final observation:

Dragging out modernization any further does nothing to help farmers. Anyone who thinks it doesn’t matter, remember: Farmers first.

Having witnessed the unnecessarily drawn-out hearing in Carmel, IN, it’s hard not to wonder if foot-dragging is a strategic choice in some circles. What’s a few months of million-dollar legal fees when a faulty Class I mover alone has cost farmers $1.2 billion since 2019? Who exactly benefits from a few more months of inaccurate component pricing that ensures farmers aren’t fairly compensated for the quality of their milk?

The original targeted timeline for a modernization vote was set for this fall, but now the spring of 2025 is more likely. Assuming that USDA adopts a plan that’s aligned with the key points above, it’s imperative that the entire dairy community, for the sake of the farmers the FMMO system is designed to serve, support timely approval and implementation. Drawn-out hearing-room banter is one thing – the prosperity of dairy farmers who have waited patiently long enough is more important than profiting from further delay.

Since this effort began in earnest in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, NMPF has taken seriously its role as the policy leader for U.S. dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own. We continue to draw on the strength of our members throughout our united effort – that’s the foundation of success. We’ve taken another big step this week. We continue to look forward to its successful conclusion.

 

Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF

 

CWT Assists with 4.5 Million Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales

Posted on by Khadija Gibson-White
ARLINGTON, VA – Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted 29 offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 2.5 million pounds (1,150 MT) of American-type cheese, 309,000 pounds (140 MT) of butter, 454,000 pounds (210 MT) of anhydrous milkfat, 628,000 pounds (285 MT) of whole milk powder and 600,000 pounds (270 MT) of cream cheese. The product is going to customers in Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, Middle East-North Africa and Oceania, and will be delivered from April through August 2024.

CWT-assisted member cooperative year-to-date export sales total 30.4 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 309,000 pounds of butter (82% milkfat), 617,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 7.9 million pounds of whole milk powder and 3.1 million pounds of cream cheese. The products are going to 24 countries in five regions. These sales are the equivalent of 386.4 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. Over the last 12 months, CWT assisted sales are the equivalent of 1.033 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively affects all U.S. dairy farmers and cooperatives by fostering the competitiveness of US dairy products in the global marketplace and helping member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share for U.S dairy products. As a result, the program has helped significantly expand the total demand for U.S. dairy products and the demand for U.S. farm milk that produces those products.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT pays export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by required documentation.

 

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The Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program is funded by voluntary contributions from dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers. The money raised by their investment is being used to strengthen and stabilize dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins.

 

NMPF FMMO Modernization Comments Put Farmers First

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Milk Producers Federation, the largest U.S. dairy-farmer organization and the industry’s premier policy voice in Washington, submitted its final, formal legal “brief” on their behalf for Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) modernization to USDA.

The NMPF brief, which was submitted March 29 and hand-delivered to USDA today, emphasized that those farmers are the reason the system exists — and that, by law, their priorities are pre-eminent in USDA consideration of a final plan.

“Our proposed package of proposals to the Federal Milk Marketing Order align thoroughly with its mission and purpose, which were intended to put farmers first,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “We’ve spent nearly three years painstakingly assembling the broad consensus among dairy farmers that modernization needs to succeed. Our approach is careful and comprehensive, and it benefits farmers of all regions and types of operations.”

NMPF’s proposals include:

  • Returning to the “higher of” Class I mover;
  • Discontinuing the use of barrel cheese in the protein component price formula;
  • Extending the current 30-day reporting limit to 45 days on forward priced sales on nonfat dry milk and dry whey to capture more exports sales in the USDA product price reporting;
  • Updating milk component factors for protein, other solids and nonfat solids in the Class III and Class IV skim milk price formulas;
  • Developing a process to ensure make-allowances are reviewed more frequently through legislation directing USDA to conduct mandatory plant-cost studies every two years;
  • Updating dairy product manufacturing allowances contained in the USDA milk price formulas; and
  • Updating the Class I differential price system to reflect changes in the cost of delivering bulk milk to fluid processing plants.

In contrast to proposals driven by narrow self-interest, NMPF’s package of proposals reflect its broad-based membership and consensus-driven approach, which resulted in unanimous approval from its Board of Directors last year. With that unity unbroken, Doud said he looked forward to USDA’s consideration of NMPF’s solid hearing record which was built along with its recently submitted brief, as well as the department’s recommended decision expected at the beginning of July.

“NMPF has taken seriously its role as the policy leader for U.S. dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own, and we continue to draw on the strength of our members,” he said. “Today we’ve taken another big step toward modernization. We continue to look forward to its successful conclusion.”

NMPF’S Jonker Discusses Findings of Bird Flu in Cattle in Southwest

Posted on by Chris Galen

NMPF’s Chief Science Officer Jamie Jonker explains to Dairy Radio Now listeners what the implications are of the discovery that bird flu has infected some cattle in Texas and Kansas. As the USDA investigation and more sampling is done, Jonker provides tips to listeners about how they can protect their herds from the contagious virus.

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Joint Dairy Organization Statement on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Cows

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Statement from the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), and Dairy Management Inc. (DMI)

Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in two dairy cattle herds in Texas and two herds in Kansas.

Importantly, USDA confirmed that there is no threat to human health and milk and dairy products remain safe to consume. Pasteurization (high heat treatment) kills harmful microbes and pathogens in milk, including the influenza virus.

Also, routine testing and well-established protocols for U.S. dairy will continue to ensure that only safe milk enters the food supply. In keeping with the federal Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), milk from sick cows must be collected separately and is not allowed to enter the food supply chain. This means affected dairy cows are segregated, as is normal practice with any animal health concern, and their milk does not enter the food supply.

Consumers in the United States and around the world can remain confident in the safety and quality of U.S. dairy.

Enhanced Biosecurity Protocols Underway on U.S. Dairy Farms

As information related to an illness affecting dairy cows in several states began to circulate over the past two weeks, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) worked with state veterinary authorities as well as federal partners including the FDA to swiftly identify and respond to detections and mitigate the virus’ impact on U.S. dairy production. Dairy farmers also have begun implementing enhanced biosecurity protocols on their farms, limiting the amount of traffic into and out of their properties and restricting visits to employees and essential personnel. Avian influenza is an animal health issue, not a human health concern. Importantly, mammals including cows do not spread avian influenza—it requires birds as the vector of transmission and it’s extremely rare for the virus to affect humans because most people will never have direct and prolonged contact with an infected bird, especially on a dairy farm. As a precaution, dairy farmers are taking important measures to protect their workers.

The National Dairy FARM Program (NDFP) offers several valuable biosecurity resources providing dairy farmers with tools to keep their cattle and dairy businesses safe, including:

Biosecurity practices guidance is available here.

Dairy farmers who observe clinical signs in their herd consistent with this outbreak, such as a significant loss of animal appetite and rumination or an acute drop in milk production, should immediately contact their veterinarian. Veterinarians who observe these clinical signs and have ruled out other diagnoses on a client’s farm should contact the state veterinarian and plan to submit a complete set of samples to be tested at a diagnostic laboratory.

What is Pasteurization?

Pasteurization is a process that kills harmful bacteria and pathogens, including viruses, by heating milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time. The processing of milk products involves pasteurization of the raw milk to a minimum of 161.5˚F for 15 seconds and then immediately cooling it. Ultra pasteurization is a process that heats milk at a higher temperature for specified times to extend a product’s shelf life.

What is Avian Influenza?

Detections of avian influenza in birds, including chickens, are common in the United States in the spring and fall due to wild birds spreading the virus as they migrate to and from their seasonal homes. While it is uncommon for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza to affect dairy cows, USDA APHIS has been tracking detections of HPAI in mammals for many years in the United States, leading dairy farmers and veterinarians in the United States to prepare for this eventuality. As a result, dairy farmers have taken immediate measures to enhance biosecurity measures in and around dairy farms to keep the food supply safe.

About the Illness in Cows

Dairy producers with affected cows are reporting a rapid onset illness in herds, specifically among older, lactating cows. Clinical signs include:

  • Decreased herd level milk production
  • Acute sudden drop in production
  • Decrease in feed consumption
  • Abnormal feces and some fever
  • Older cows may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows

According to dairy farmers and veterinarians reporting on affected herds, most affected cows recover within two to three weeks.

Information for Affected Producers

Producers who believe dairy cattle within their herd are showing the clinical signs described above should report these signs immediately to state veterinarians. Animals may also be reported to APHIS’ toll-free number at 1-866-536-7593.

Trade and Exports

The U.S. dairy industry will continue to work with the U.S. federal government, trading partners and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) to encourage adherence to WOAH standards and minimize all unnecessary or unfair trade impacts. It is essential that trading partners do not impose bans or restrictions on the international trade of dairy commodities in response to these and future notifications and rely on the science-based food safety steps taken in U.S. dairy processing, namely pasteurization, in preserving market access.

Additional Information

  • To provide context on the overall size of the U.S. dairy herd, there are more 9.3 million dairy cows in the United States.
  • S. dairy export value was $8.11 billion in 2023, the second largest value on record.

CWT Assists with 1 Million Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales

Posted on by Khadija Gibson-White
ARLINGTON, VA – Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted eight offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 836,000 pounds (380 MT) of American-type cheese and 172,000 pounds (80 MT) of whole milk powder. The product is going to customers in Asia, Central America, the Caribbean and Middle East-North Africa, and will be delivered from April through July 2024.

CWT-assisted member cooperative year-to-date export sales total 27.9 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 163,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 7.3 million pounds of whole milk powder and 2.5 million pounds of cream cheese. The products are going to 24 countries in five regions. These sales are the equivalent of 334.5 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. Over the last 12 months, CWT assisted sales are the equivalent of 984.2 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively affects all U.S. dairy farmers and cooperatives by fostering the competitiveness of US dairy products in the global marketplace and helping member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share for U.S dairy products. As a result, the program has helped significantly expand the total demand for U.S. dairy products and the demand for U.S. farm milk that produces those products.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT pays export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by required documentation.

 

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The Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program is funded by voluntary contributions from dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers. The money raised by their investment is being used to strengthen and stabilize dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins.

 

CWT Assists with 3.9 Million Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales

Posted on by Khadija Gibson-White
ARLINGTON, VA – Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted 35 offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 3.5 million pounds (1,600 MT) of American-type cheese, 51,000 pounds (23 MT) of anhydrous milkfat and 309,000 pounds (140 MT) of cream cheese. The product is going to customers in Asia, Middle East-North Africa and South America, and will be delivered from March through June 2024.

CWT-assisted member cooperative year-to-date export sales total 28 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 163,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 7.1 million pounds of whole milk powder and 2.5 million pounds of cream cheese. The products are going to 24 countries in five regions. These sales are the equivalent of 334 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. Over the last 12 months, CWT assisted sales are the equivalent of 1.004 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively affects all U.S. dairy farmers and cooperatives by fostering the competitiveness of US dairy products in the global marketplace and helping member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share for U.S dairy products. As a result, the program has helped significantly expand the total demand for U.S. dairy products and the demand for U.S. farm milk that produces those products.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT pays export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by required documentation.

 

###

 

The Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program is funded by voluntary contributions from dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers. The money raised by their investment is being used to strengthen and stabilize dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins.

 

Dairy’s building a better environmental tool

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Nicole Ayache, Chief Sustainability Officer, National Milk Producers Federation

The Farmers Assuring Responsible Management Environmental Stewardship Program (FARM ES) is collaborating with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy to integrate a new, process-based model for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting: the Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) model. This rigorous, science-based (but user friendly) approach will position FARM ES as the key on-farm tool to support U.S. dairy community efforts to achieve its 2050 environmental stewardship goals, including to become GHG neutral or better. FARM ES is the U.S. dairy industry’s unified platform to track and aggregate on-farm environmental progress, with a suite of informational resources to support continuous improvement.

FARM ES will begin using RuFaS as its underlying GHG quantification model starting this summer with Version 3. This introductory launch will contain the core elements of the RuFaS model to enable farm-level GHG footprinting and scenario analyses, which help support informed decision-making about the adoption of practices and technologies. Further elements — like enhancements to the energy data inputs and conducting economic analyses — will be added to FARM ES as they become available through ongoing RuFaS research.

A key focus of the remainder this year will be to collect farmer, FARM evaluator, and other stakeholder feedback so the new platform can be refined in 2025.

Real-world refinement

The FARM Program relies on stakeholder feedback and guidance from the scientific experts at Dairy Management Inc. to guide its process of continuous improvement. Input from dairy farmers, cooperative and processor staff, and researchers informed the need to upgrade the GHG model that powers FARM ES. Stakeholders consistently requested a tool that can deliver insights as they evaluate opportunities to further improve on-farm environmental outcomes.

Stakeholder engagement and participatory research continue to be essential as FARM ES begins the work to integrate the RuFaS model. A working group composed of farmers and staff from dairy cooperatives and processors meet with RuFaS researchers to discuss the scientific model and tool functionality. The multi-stakeholder working group has met seven times so far, covering the animal, manure, feed, energy, and economic RuFaS modules and giving feedback on the structure of data inputs, desired functionality for the new FARM ES tool, and more.

More than 25 farms volunteered to participate in scientific model validation to support RuFaS calibration and refinement, with data collection complete in 2023. The volunteer farms ranged in size from 50 head to over 15,000 head and represent diverse geographies and production styles, including tie stalls, freestalls, dry lost, grazing, and more. The farms and the evaluators that supported their data collection were invited to provide written feedback and join live feedback sessions. They provided helpful guidance on topics such as ease and challenges in collecting and interpreting the data inputs, quality of data collection training in fully equipping evaluators, and the structure of the results report.

With the introduction of FARM ES Version 3, FARM will create feedback forms for farmers and FARM evaluators to provide suggestions. FARM also will host stakeholder webinars to foster discussion about the new platform.

This summer’s launch will bring exciting updates to FARM ES. They are only the beginning of the journey toward a more scientifically robust tool that brings greater insights to participating dairy farmers.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on March 18, 2024.

NMPF’s Bleiberg discusses new congressional report on need for farm labor

Posted on by Chris Galen

NMPF’s Executive Vice President Paul Bleiberg joins Dairy Radio Now this week to assess the impact of a new report from the House Agriculture Committee on the need that dairy farms and other ag employers have for farm workers, and what the prospects are for the push to expand the H2A visa program to dairy employers.

NMPF’s Castaneda Discusses WTO, India, CWT

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Executive Vice President Jaime Castaneda discusses efforts to expand dairy market access at recent World Trade Organization meetings in Abu Dhabi in an interview with the Red River Radio Network. Castaneda also discusses trade relations with India and the importance of the NMPF-led Cooperatives Working Together program for the future of U.S. dairy exports.