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FARM Excellence Awards Nominations Deadline Approaches

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program Excellence Awards are back for their third year. The awards recognize farms and evaluators who demonstrate excellence in their engagement with the FARM Program in four categories: Animal Care & Antibiotic Stewardship, Environmental Stewardship, Workforce Development and FARM Evaluator.

Farms or FARM evaluators can self-nominate or be nominated by fellow dairy farmers, members of their communities, extension, cooperative or processor staff, or veterinarians. Nominations are open until 11:59 p.m. PDT on Aug. 1 and should be submitted using the online form on the FARM website.

Nominated farms must have a current FARM Program evaluation in the respective category area and be in good standing with the program. Nominated evaluators must be FARM Program certified in any of the program areas as of last June 1. The awards are judged by a committee of FARM Farmer Advisory Council members and other subject matter experts.

Winners in each category will receive a hotel room and travel for two individuals to attend the Dairy Joint Annual Meeting Nov. 13-15 in Orlando, Florida, where the winners will be celebrated during a luncheon. Visit the FARM Excellence Awards page for more details.

NMPF-Led Feed Additive Legislation Advances in Senate

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF efforts to spur approval of animal feed ingredients that can reduce enteric methane emissions in dairy cows took an important step forward June 15 when the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee approved the bipartisan Innovative FEED Act (S. 1842) by a 19-2 vote.

The legislation sponsored by Sens. Roger Marshall, R-KS, Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, Jerry Moran, R-KS, and Michael Bennet, D-CO, would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to review animal feed additives, which are not drugs, using the Food Additive Petition (FAP) pathway as opposed to the drug pathway. That would make FDA reviews more efficient and help U.S. dairy farmers act quickly and proactively to reduce enteric methane emissions and maintain global competitiveness without compromising animal, human, or environmental safety.

Feed ingredients like Elanco’s Bovaer, or 3-NOP, can reduce enteric methane emissions by as much as 30 percent and, once approved for use, are poised to play a key role in dairy industry sustainability efforts.

The Innovative FEED Act was adopted as an amendment to the larger Animal Drug and Animal Generic Drug User Fee Amendments of 2023 (S. 1844), which subsequently passed the committee unanimously. NMPF worked closely with Sens. Marshall and Baldwin to develop and advance the language and looks forward to working with the bill sponsors and other stakeholders to move this measure across the finish line in final negotiations with the House.

Dietary Guidelines Protocols Need Newer Dairy Science, NMPF Tells Committee

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF called for newer science on dairy fats, and for no inferences to be made about the health benefits of plant-based milk alternatives based on dairy science, in comments submitted June 30 on draft protocols developed by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory committee.

These protocols will, when final, inform the conduct of systematic reviews and food pattern modeling that will form the science base of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

Key points of NMPF’s comments include:

  • Allowing for the inclusion of studies shorter than 12 weeks in duration;
  • Advocating for newer body of science on dairy fat in the committee’s review;
  • Pushing for dairy milk and plant-based milk alternatives not to be grouped together for the same evidence review, strongly cautioning against any inferences made regarding the health impacts associated with milk consumption that would be applied to plant-based milk alternatives; and
  • Spotlighting dairy’s role in health equity, including lactose-free and low-lactose products being a nutrient-dense option.

Once the protocols are set, the committee will examine available information to answer the questions and develop recommendations to be released in its scientific report. USDA and HHS will then use the recommendations to update the current DGAs. The next public meeting is scheduled for Sept. 13.

NMPF Builds Support for Whole Milk in Schools

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF built support for the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act in both chambers of Congress in June, with lawmakers giving increased attention to the need to increase milk options in schools.

The measure would allow schools to serve 2% and whole milk in school breakfast and lunch programs, which aren’t currently allowed. Although versions of the bill have been introduced in previous congressional sessions, the legislation has more support and is advancing further in Congress this session.

The House bipartisan measure, H.R. 1146, was approved by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in early June, marking the first time the measure has made it through the committee approval process. NMPF worked with bill sponsors House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-PA, and Rep. Kim Schrier, D-WA, a pediatrician, to build bipartisan support for the bill within the House and the committee itself.

NMPF wrote and organized a letter of support for the bill signed by 58 dairy organizations, sending to the committee a strong message of support for the measure. With over 125 cosponsors, the bill providing this “practical solution” has bipartisan support from the committee and the House, with potential House action as soon as this month.

NMPF is also building support for the Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Marshall, R-KS, and Peter Welch, D-VT and introduced in mid-June. That legislation also has solid bipartisan support but has not yet had a committee vote.

DMC Margin Drops More than $1 in May to Record Low

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The May Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin dropped by $1.01/cwt from April to $4.83/cwt, the lowest it’s ever been and the first time below $5/cwt during the life of the current program or that of its predecessor, the Margin Protection Program (MPP), triggering payment at both the Tier I and Tier II levels.

The May all-milk price dropped by $1.40/cwt from a month earlier to $19.30/cwt, while the DMC feed cost eased lower by $0.39/cwt in that time, on lower corn and soybean meal prices. The May payment for the maximum Tier 1 coverage at the $9.50/cwt level will be $4.67/cwt. The May payment for the low-cost Tier 2 coverage at the $5.00/cwt level will be $0.17/cwt.

Available forecasts anticipate the margin dipping down closer to $4/cwt during early summer, with a bottom in July, and not rebounding above $9.50/cwt until early in 2024.

NMPF Warns FDA: Don’t Repeat Plant-Based Mistakes with Lab-Produced Fake ‘Milk’

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must end dairy product mislabeling by manufacturers of synthetic, cell-based “dairy” ingredients that are in violation of federal dairy Standards of Identity to prevent a repeat of the plant-based labeling fiasco that’s created confusion among consumers and regulatory headaches at the agency, the National Milk Producers Federation said in a letter to the agency.

“Bored Cow’s product takes water and adds what we believe to be one unidentified, lab-engineered ‘whey protein’ along with a highly processed concoction of food additives, preservatives, oil, sugar and several added vitamins, and claims to have created ‘animal-free dairy milk.’ It is baseless, preposterous and absurd to call the resulting product ‘milk,’” NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern said in the letter sent to FDA on June 26. “In the interest of public health, the misleading labeling charade must end before it gets out of hand. FDA must act, and must do so now.”

NMPF, which has repeatedly called on FDA to enforce its identity standards for milk as plant-based fakes have proliferated, has been warning the agency that lab-based milk imposters would be next on the horizon without agency action. Even as the agency is wrestling with draft guidance that finally acknowledges consumers’ core concern over plant-based beverages – their false positioning as dairy equivalents in the face of glaring nutritional inferiority – lab-based imitators are following the plant-based playbook and plastering “milk” and other standardized dairy terms on products that in composition bear little resemblance to true dairy.

“As we have seen in the decades-long folly of plant-based beverage labeling, an ounce of prevention is worth oceans of cure,” Mulhern wrote. “We ask the agency to exercise its well-established authority to prevent this company and others that seek to follow from leading consumers down what will become a superhighway of misinformation, absent your willingness to enforce the law.”

Consumers concerned with labeling integrity may visit NMPF’s Call to Action on plant-based labeling here. For an in-depth discussion on lab-based “dairy” and its pitfalls, listen to this podcast here. A copy of NMPF’s full letter regarding Bored Cow, a brand offered by New York City-based Tomorrow Farms, is here.

NMPF’s Galen Discusses Lab-Produced Fake “Milk”

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Chris Galen, NMPF’s senior vice president of membership services and strategic initiatives, discusses NMPF’s recent effort to end dairy product mislabeling by manufacturers of synthetic, cell-based “dairy” ingredients that are in violation of federal dairy Standards of Identity to prevent a repeat of the plant-based labeling fiasco that’s created confusion among consumers and regulatory headaches at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

NMPF, which has repeatedly called on FDA to enforce its identity standards for milk as plant-based fakes have proliferated, has been warning the agency that lab-based milk imposters would be next on the horizon without agency action. Even as the agency is wrestling with draft guidance that finally acknowledges consumers’ core concern over plant-based beverages – their false positioning as dairy equivalents in the face of glaring nutritional inferiority – lab-based imitators are following the plant-based playbook and plastering “milk” and other standardized dairy terms on products that in composition bear little resemblance to true dairy.

Consumers concerned with labeling integrity may visit NMPF’s Call to Action on plant-based labeling here.

CWT Assists with 1.4 Million Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales

Posted on by Khadija Gibson-White

ARLINGTON, VA – Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted 14 offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 421,000 pounds (191 MT) of American-type cheese, 220,000 pounds (100 MT) of butter and 787,000 pounds (357 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 July through September 2023.

CWT-assisted member cooperative year-to-date export sales total 24.5 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 765,000 pounds of butter (82% milkfat), 24,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 31.2 million pounds of whole milk powder and 5.2 million pounds of cream cheese. The products are going to 22 countries in five regions. These sales are the equivalent of 512.2 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 U.S. 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 the dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins.

Dairy Gains Strength Through its Advocates

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Dairy farmers don’t advance better policy unless dairy farmers get involved. And don’t take my word for it: Listen to NMPF’s Young Cooperators, who met with members of Congress last month at their annual Capitol Hill fly-in.

“Forging connections with our elected officials is so important for dairy farmers,” wrote Isabel Mullin, an Agri-Mark farmer near Kittery, ME, in feedback after the event. “The communication informs them about the real-life impact of policy proposals and it informs us about potential changes coming for our farms.”

“As the general public becomes further and further removed from agriculture, it is even more important to share our experiences and build relationships with our elected officials,” said Katelyn Packard, who dairies outside Manchester, MI. “They represent our community and make decisions that affect us each day.”

Isabel and Katelyn are right. As dairy farmers grow fewer in number and demands on congressional attention rise, a personal voice is critical to breaking through the noise and misinformation that dominates federal policymaking. Important decisions for the future of dairy are coming over the next few months, ranging from a new farm bill and Federal Milk Marketing Order discussions to efforts to get whole milk back in schools and bring greater transparency to the labeling of plant-based beverages that use dairy terms.

All these challenges will make grass-roots engagement from dairy farmers and their affiliated organizations, as well the broader dairy industry and allies among the public, that much more important. That’s why our preparations for an FMMO order hearing are being led by our member cooperatives, who with us are coordinating farmer testimony during the upcoming weekslong USDA hearing. That’s why we’ve created a Dairy Voice Network of farmers trained to deal with media interviews and speak out for the industry. It’s why we help our cooperatives prepare farmers for congressional hearings on the farm bill and other topics.

Dairy farmers need a seat at the table; we work both to get them there and help them be effective in that position.

Also critical to our efforts are our Calls to Action – a way for dairy farmers and their friends to get involved that’s as simple as sending an e-mail. Our Advocacy page, found at https://www.nmpf.org/take-action/ offers updates on critical initiatives affecting farmers and provides tools for dairy advocates to make themselves heard via letters to relevant lawmakers and policy officials.

Currently, the page offers opportunities to help on the FDA’s draft guidance on plant-based beverages; the SAVE Act, a critical piece of legislation defending U.S. cheesemakers from European Union attempts to restrict what names are used for cheeses; and the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would put whole and 2% milk back on school lunch menus. Calls to support dairy farmers in the farm bill and through Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization will be coming soon.

We’d urge everyone who cares about dairy’s future to visit the page and sign up for our Advocacy Alerts, where advocates are notified of important policy developments and asked to act upon them. As an organization, the National Milk Producers Federation has always worked with a strength that’s greater than its numbers – and that strength comes from the unity of our community. With important initiatives imminent, now is a great time to reinforce this strength. We’re hoping you can help.

 

Jim Mulhern

President & CEO, NMPF

 

NMPF Letter Warns FDA: Don’t Repeat Plant-Based Mistakes with Lab-Produced Fake ‘Milk’

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must end dairy product mislabeling by manufacturers of synthetic, cell-based “dairy” ingredients that are in violation of federal dairy Standards of Identity to prevent a repeat of the plant-based labeling fiasco that’s created confusion among consumers and regulatory headaches at the agency, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) said in a letter to the agency.

“Bored Cow’s product takes water and adds what we believe to be one unidentified, lab-engineered ‘whey protein’ along with a highly processed concoction of food additives, preservatives, oil, sugar and several added vitamins, and claims to have created ‘animal-free dairy milk.’ It is baseless, preposterous and absurd to call the resulting product ‘milk,’” NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern said in the letter. “In the interest of public health, the misleading labeling charade must end before it gets out of hand. FDA must act, and must do so now.”

NMPF, which has repeatedly called on FDA to enforce its identity standards for milk as plant-based fakes have proliferated, has been warning the agency that lab-based milk imposters would be next on the horizon without agency action. Even as the agency is wrestling with draft guidance that finally acknowledges consumers’ core concern over plant-based beverages – their false positioning as dairy equivalents in the face of glaring nutritional inferiority – lab-based imitators are following the plant-based playbook and plastering “milk” and other standardized dairy terms on products that in composition bear little resemblance to true dairy.

“As we have seen in the decades-long folly of plant-based beverage labeling, an ounce of prevention is worth oceans of cure,” Mulhern wrote. “We ask the agency to exercise its well-established authority to prevent this company and others that seek to follow from leading consumers down what will become a superhighway of misinformation, absent your willingness to enforce the law.”

Consumers concerned with labeling integrity may visit NMPF’s Call to Action on plant-based labeling here. For an in-depth discussion on lab-based “dairy” and its pitfalls, listen to this podcast here. A copy of NMPF’s full letter regarding Bored Cow, a brand offered by New York City-based Tomorrow Farms, is here.

Price and Margin Outlook Challenge Farmers

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Peter Vitaliano, Chief Economist, NMPF

The price and margin outlook continues to challenge the nation’s dairy farmers, with little sign of immediate relief.

CME futures markets, which I use to project prices, indicate a 2023 calendar year U.S. average All-Milk price within a penny or two of $20.45 per hundredweight (cwt.); combined with an annual average Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) feed cost of $14.20 per cwt., prices and costs at these levels would result in an annual average DMC margin of $6.25.

The USDA’s DMC Decision Tool has a different take on the CME futures, but it too shows roughly the same three average numbers for this year. Meanwhile, USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report from June 8 was even more dour, with a $19.95 per cwt. milk price forecast for this year.

The worst of the trough

And those are just the averages — the worst of the trough may be happening right now. Both the CME futures markets and the USDA tool indicate DMC margins well below $5 per cwt. for the three months during the May to August period, which for the first time would trigger Tier 2 payments. Tier 2 coverage at that level costs only a half cent a hundredweight, the same as equivalent Tier 1 coverage. Neither forecast expects the margin to top $9.50 per cwt. before the year is out.

Milk production isn’t usually cited as the root cause of this gloom – but it deserves a closer look. Production growth has been experiencing an unusually short and mild expansion cycle following its extended period last year below year-earlier levels. Production growth maxed out this year at 1.4% in January and was headed down since, hitting just 0.4% over a year ago in April, but annual growth ticked back up to 0.6% in May and has averaged 0.8% for the first five months of 2023.

But assessing the role of milk production with respect to milk prices can’t be done only with reference to historic patterns but rather with respect to current available demand. USDA reports of plentiful supplies for manufacturing, milk selling well below class prices, and busy production schedules suggests that milk production is definitely part of the problem. And production itself needs to be understood, because milk solids production is a more reliable indicator of the aggregate supply of dairy products available in the markets. And that’s up by 1.1% during the first third of the year.

A top-level look at the supply-demand situation for key products and total milk use during the first third of 2023 provides further insights. American cheese production has been an important outlet for recent additional milk production, which isn’t surprising given the recent expansion of U.S. cheese production capacity. Production has grown by 2.6% during the first four months of this year while total commercial use, domestic consumption, and exports are up by 1.6%. Even with these increases, stocks are still below last year’s peak levels.

Total commercial use of other than American-type cheese is up by just 0.8%, as food service use is weak following more than a year of retail price inflation that has forced consumers to tighten up on spending. But production of this type of cheese is down by half a percent. Total fluid milk sales are 2.7% lower than last year, which is in line with long-term trends that were broken in recent years only during the first pandemic year when fluid sales experienced modest growth. Butter consumption suffered last year from its extreme price inflation but has showed improved consumption in recent months. Total exports are on par with last year’s record levels so far in 2023 but have recently slowed in pace. During March and April last year, exports sent 18.4% of domestic milk solids production overseas. This year, this was just 17%.

The current weak price and margin situation isn’t attributable to one single factor; rather, it’s an accumulation of many small weaknesses in many areas, with some further deterioration in just the last couple of months. The futures markets’ projected improvement during the second half of the year will need to be driven by consumers returning to bolder spending behavior as inflation continues to ebb, and for the current low prices to perform their proverbial supply-side function of curing themselves.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on June 26, 2023.