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CWT Wraps Up Herd Retirement, Continues Export Assistance

September 1, 2010

 

CWT Wraps Up Herd Retirement, Continues Export Assistance

Farm audits of the 194 dairies selected in the 2010 Herd Retirement have been completed. Participating producers are in the process of submitting the required documents substantiating that their cows have been sold to meat packing facilities. It is expected that all producers will have provided the necessary paperwork to CWT, and will have been paid by the end of September. The name and location of producers taken in this herd retirement are posted on the CWT website after they are issued the first 90% of their payments. The remaining 10%, plus interest, is paid twelve months after the farm audit, if neither the producer or facility become involved in producing and marketing milk during that period.

During August, the CWT Export Assistance program approved four requests from members for assistance in exporting 524,700 pounds of cheese. This brought total cheese exports assisted to 41.9 million pounds.

In addition, butter, butter blends, and anhydrous milkfat were temporarily added to the products currently eligible for export assistance. In August, 25 requests for assistance were accepted that helped CWT members sell 6.5 million pounds of butter and 4.1 million pounds of anhydrous milkfat. Exports of assisted butter and AMF total 33.1 million pounds, two-third of which will be delivered after Thanksgiving, the time when butter prices typically drop significantly.

Given the current butter price, and following consultation with the organization’s elected leadership, CWT’s management has determined that it will no longer consider requests for export assistance on butter, butter blends, or anhydrous milkfat for the remainder of 2010.