Alan Bjerga, NMPF Executive Vice President of Communications, discusses how NMPF’s strong presence at the World Dairy Expo shows the breadth of the organization’s service to its members in an interview with WEKZ, Janesville, WI. NMPF-affiliated offerings include a panel on Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, a seminar on succession planning, a look at women’s leadership in dairy and H5N1 biosecurity management on dairy farms. The National Dairy FARM Program will also be out in full force, Bjerga noted.
Tag: dairy farmers
Dairy Farmers See Advances in USDA’s FMMO Plan, NMPF’s Bjerga Says
Dairy farmers have reasons to be pleased with the draft proposal for Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, NMPF Executive Vice President Alan Bjerga said in an interview with Dairy Radio Now. That said, the process isn’t complete. Farmers still have a 60-day comment period and a final producer vote before any final proposal is implemented. NMPF is ready to lead, as it has throughout, Bjerga said.
NMPF’s Bjerga on H5N1, Farm Bill
NMPF Executive Vice President for Communications & Industry Relations Alan Bjerga speaks on RFD-TV about dairy farmer challenges and their broader relationship with agriculture, ranging from H5N1 in dairy cattle to discussions of the 2024 Farm Bill in Washington. Success across all fronts will require communication and collaboration across agricultural sectors, he said. Meanwhile, NMPF is optimistic regarding the future of milk pricing, with a USDA plan on Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization expected within the next few weeks.
https://www.rfdtv.com/from-farm-bill-to-hpai-what-is-dairy-farmer-sentiment-looking-like
NMPF Young Cooperators Take Dairy’s Message to Capitol Hill
NMPF’s Senior Director Theresa Sweeney-Murphy tells Dairy Radio Now listeners about the recent visit to Washington by National Milk’s Young Cooperator representatives, who came to Capitol Hill this week to advocate for the dairy community on key issues like the farm bill and proper dairy foods labeling.
FARM Biosecurity helps protect dairy’s future
By Miquela Hanselman Director of Regulatory Affairs, National Milk Producers Federation
Biosecurity may be more top-of-mind than ever in dairy herds in light of how industry practices are changing in reaction to the presence of the H5N1 virus in dairy cows. The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Biosecurity Program has resources that can support dairy farmers as they face evolving animal care challenges.
The FARM Program launched its Biosecurity Program in 2021 via a cooperative agreement with the USDA National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response program. FARM Biosecurity builds on the existing FARM Animal Care Program and Secure Milk Supply (SMS) Plan, providing resources focused on protecting cattle and employee health.
The program includes both everyday biosecurity practices as well as enhanced biosecurity resources. The FARM Everyday Biosecurity Program focuses on preventing disease introduction and spread by building on the good husbandry practices dairy farmers have long included in animal care. Everyday biosecurity practices protect against common diseases like contagious mastitis, respiratory infections, and scours.
Enhanced biosecurity brings the practices developed under the SMS Plan into the FARM program. Though FARM Enhanced Biosecurity was developed to help ensure continuity of business during a foot and mouth disease outbreak, the concepts can help protect against other known disease threats, such as the current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in dairy cattle.
Take steps now
We are still learning about how HPAI virus spreads among cattle, with more information expected as testing ramps up and federal agencies begin isolating data patterns. Below are some every day and enhanced biosecurity focus areas that help against the spread of many known diseases in cattle. These measures may also help prevent HPAI virus exposure to cattle and the people who care for them. Great first steps are identifying a line of separation, limiting animal movement as much as possible, using premovement testing, and having logs of visitors, deliveries, and animal movements.
Protecting the dairy from exposure:
- Minimize access of wild birds to cattle and their environment.
- Manage movements of cattle and their transport.
- Limit livestock contact to essential people.
Preventing cattle or calf exposure:
- Avoid feeding raw colostrum or milk to calves, cattle, and other mammals.
- Follow good milking practices.
- Separate new or returning animals and isolate sick animals.
- Sanitize milking equipment after use with new, returning, or sick cattle.
Precautions for animal caretakers:
- Avoid consuming unpasteurized (raw) milk and cheeses from suspect or confirmed HPAI cattle.
- Wear protective gear covering the eyes, nose, mouth, and hands when contacting infected animals, carcasses, milk, or manure.
The enhanced biosecurity prep guide and online training include key biosecurity concepts that can be used during the H5N1 outbreak.
Good biosecurity takes time and practice to be effective, but as current challenges show, more attention to it will be critical to our industry today and tomorrow. Building everyday practices into your routine and having an enhanced biosecurity plan can protect your animals, employees, and business from disease threats.
Visit nationaldairyfarm.com to learn more about biosecurity and access resources, and visit nmpf.org/hpai for the latest updates on HPAI in cattle.
This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on June 3, 2024.
NMPF’s Galen Explains Latest Development in Farm Bill Process in Congress
NMPF’s Senior Vice President Chris Galen explains for listeners of Dairy Radio Now how the House and Senate agriculture committees are each now seeking to advance their respective versions of the 2024 Farm Bill. Galen describes how the measures may affect dairy policy, and what the next steps are for lawmakers this spring on Capitol Hill.
NMPF Statement on House and Senate Farm Bill Frameworks
From NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud:
“Dairy farmers are heartened that today, both House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-PA, and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, each released documents providing an overview of their farm bill priorities and plans. Dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own are better-served by the certainty provided under a five-year farm bill, and as both chairs point the way toward important dairy priorities across multiple farm bill titles, all of dairy is eager to see this process get moving.
“We look forward to the House Agriculture Committee’s markup of its bill on May 23. We’re ready, and excited, to work with both chairs and their ranking members to complete work on a farm bill this year.”
NMPF’s Paul Bleiberg Outlines USDA Decision On WIC Dairy Purchases
NMPF’s Executive Vice President Paul Bleiberg gives Dairy Radio Now the background on this week’s decision by USDA to adjust spending for WIC program recipients, and how that will impact dairy purchases, including milk, as the changes are implemented.
FARM Biosecurity Program Outlines HPAI Prevention and Security
The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management, or FARM Program, is the U.S. dairy’s on-farm national social responsibility program. One of its important parts is on-farm biosecurity. Emily Yeiser-Stepp, executive director of the National Dairy FARM Program, says biosecurity is more important than ever after the recent outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in dairy cattle herds
NMPF’S Jonker Discusses Findings of Bird Flu in Cattle in Southwest
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.
NMPF’s Bleiberg discusses new congressional report on need for farm labor
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.
The Class I Mover Needs to Move
By Paul Bleiberg, Executive Vice President, Government Relations, NMPF
Even as an election looms on the horizon, USDA will soon develop its Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) modernization recommendations after months of proceedings. Meanwhile, Congress is preparing to advance a farm bill. U.S. dairy farmers and their cooperatives have a stake in both. But regardless of the policy landscape of the moment, one pressing priority that unites producers from coast to coast in every way, shape, and form is the need to restore the “higher of” Class I mover.
Since it was implemented five years ago, the current “average of” Class I mover has cost dairy farmers nationwide more than $1 billion in Class I skim revenue, with losses continuing to pile up monthly. This, of course, was not intended — but neither were the repeated price inversions that upended decades of data and showed the new mover is poorly adapted to dairy’s present and future in a variety of economic climates.
Congress changed the mover during the last farm bill to respond to fluid processor requests for risk management, but that was with the expectation that it would be revenue neutral for the dairy producer. Unfortunately, the new mover has been anything but revenue neutral, and it’s been so in a way that has overwhelmingly favored processors, who are not the epicenter of the FMMO system. The new mover has underperformed repeatedly, to the detriment of dairy farmers, in 2020, 2022, 2023, and again, month by month, in 2024. The current formulation has harmed farmers so consistently that it would have been nowhere close to revenue neutral even setting aside the calamity of 2020.
In an attempt to remedy an intolerable situation (everyone, even processors, agrees on that point, at least), several concepts have been put forth that are bandages to the problem but aren’t true solutions. Modifying the current formula, for example, to retroactively recoup producer losses would still fail to send timely price signals to farmers. The argument that this modified version would have paid more to farmers at some point just yet again exposes the problem with the “average of,” which is that it causes farmers to suffer losses when they should have been paid based on market signals and instead distorts the true market by paying them back later. That approach also provides little help to the many family dairy producers who don’t have years to be made whole, a fact underscored forcefully by continued trends toward farm consolidation.
The solution to this problem comes down to priorities. The current mover may have been a fair experiment to test, but with its performance now having been assessed, continuing the “average of” formulation can be to nothing except the detriment of dairy farmers who have lost more than $1 billion dollars of ongoing disorderly marketing of milk.
The right solution is the previous “higher of” mover. That tried-and-true approach, one that served farmers well for decades, responds quickly to and accurately reflects the marketplace, encouraging the orderly marketing of milk that provides the rationale for the FMMO system, and it helps dairy farmer cash flow when it counts. The “higher of” Class I mover must be reinstated.
This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on March 4, 2024.
