Tag: dairy farmers

CEO’s Corner: Trade + Sustainability = Dairy’s Next Frontier

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Among all the great stories dairy can tell in 2021 as it celebrates National Dairy Month in June, from its reaffirmation by grocery shoppers to farmer leadership in COVID-19 vaccine drives, the sector’s gains in global trade is a true standout. U.S. dairy exports volumes reached a record in March, with the percentage of domestic milk production sent overseas that month the second highest ever. Revenues are also increasing – the $688 million worth of dairy products shipped abroad in March was the highest since 2014.

Trade is always top of mind at the National Milk Producers Federation, and of course at the U.S. Dairy Export Council, with whom we work closely. As the U.S. dairy-farmer organization that encompasses the full range of issues that shape a farmer’s success, we at NMPF are also focused on an important part of the trade story that’s less obvious, but increasingly important: how boosting dairy sales overseas depends on progress on sustainability investments at home. Just as it is in the United States, sustainability is increasingly becoming crucial for global consumers. The good news is U.S. dairy is a leader globally on sustainability just as it is on quality and affordability – crucial considerations for feeding the world, which ultimately benefits both farmers at home and consumers abroad.

First, the part we’ve always known: U.S. dairy farmers deliver affordable nutrition that meets global food-security needs. Nutrient-dense U.S. dairy products have nourished billions of people worldwide. They provide nutrients critical to preventing and addressing malnutrition, including high-quality protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iodine, and vitamins B2 and B12. And because U.S. dairy combines high quality and competitive cost, its export creates broad-based nutritional benefits worldwide.

But another, increasingly important element of U.S. dairy’s appeal is its world-leading sustainability. Even as they produce high-quality, affordable products, U.S. dairy cooperatives and the entire industry are cultivating and supporting sustainable food systems that are good for people, animals, and the planet. This serves global consumers and reflects their needs. It dovetails with the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and it also aligns with the values of stewardship U.S. dairy farmers have always embodied. Sustainability matters to dairy, as U.S. consumers have discovered — and as the world increasingly knows.

U.S. dairy’s commitments are tangible and measurable. The industry’s 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals and its Net Zero Initiative are putting the U.S. dairy sector on a path toward becoming carbon neutral or better by 2050 while optimizing water use and improving water quality. The same emphasis on sustainable production is at the core of the National Dairy FARM Program, which helps U.S. dairy farmers remain leaders in animal care, environmental stewardship, workforce development, antibiotic stewardship, and biosecurity.

Such sector-wide emphasis on best practices and sustainability leadership has already brought results. Innovative farming practices helped reduce dairy’s carbon footprint per gallon of milk by 19 percent from 2007 to 2017, while using 30 percent less water and 21 percent less land. UN FAO research has found that North America was the only region in the world to reduce farm-level dairy greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 2005 and 2015, even as milk production increased.

Choosing American milk products directly reduces global dairy emissions. That’s a great message for the world about U.S. milk. And make no mistake, the world needs what we have to offer. Global dairy consumption is expected to rise 16 percent in the next decade, and with competitors such as New Zealand and the European Union facing constraints on production due to their own policies, the opportunities for U.S. dairy brought through sustainable production are real.

So let’s raise a glass to sustainability this National Dairy Month. U.S. dairy farmers and its world of consumers are working to improve their health and the health of their planet every day. This is a success that can be sustained. And in the U.S. dairy community, it is what we pledge to do.

Dairy Leads in Nationwide Vaccination Effort

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF became a founding member of the COVID-19 Community Corps April 1, joining a nationwide effort to increase vaccine confidence while reinforcing basic prevention measures.

While the COVID-19 vaccine supply and availability has increased, hesitancy persists, creating challenges to achieving the herd immunity required to relax COVID-19 restrictions and restart the economy. Dairy farmers and their cooperatives are well-positioned to build on trusted relationships with employees, customers, and community members, and encourage vaccination in rural communities nationwide.

To support the dairy community’s continued leadership in workforce safety, NMPF distributed a COVID-19 Vaccination and the Dairy Workforce resource April 16. The toolbox was developed to help dairy farmers and cooperatives communicate with employees about the safety and benefits of COVID-19 vaccines and includes steps employers can take to help their workforce get vaccinated. NMPF also continues to update its Guide to the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout to ensure dairy farmers can easily reference up-to-date information on accessing vaccines and scheduling appointments.

Member co-ops have also stepped up as leaders in protecting the public and reviving the economy.

  • Farmers and cooperatives across the country are putting together vaccination events for farmers, staff and farmworkers in the fields where they live and work. Natural Prairie Dairy, a member of Select Milk Producers Inc. organized a vaccination event for 300 of its employees at its organic dairy farm in Dalhart, Texas. And Michigan Milk Producers Association has been driving employees to vaccination sites when necessary, reporting that up to 90 percent of employees are now vaccinated.
  • At Dairy Farmers of America, co-op employees are offered two hours of pay for each vaccine they receive; at Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Association, employees receive a $50 Amazon gift card upon receiving a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine; and at Lone Star Milk Producers, employees can take paid time off to get their shots;
  • Northwest Dairy Association/Darigold, Associated Milk Producers Inc. and Prairie Farms, among others, have organized vaccinations at their processing plants;

Vaccinating essential workers, including the dairy workforce, is important because of their role in maintaining critical infrastructure operations and their increased risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. Vaccination is one of many important tools to help stop the pandemic.

Dairy Helps Get Rural America Vaccinated, With Co-ops Leading the Way

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The robust pace of U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations is the most important story in the country right now – and not just because vaccinations make the U.S. healthier and safer. They’re also important to building back economies – in the case of dairy, they get people into restaurants, keep schools open for in-person learning (and nutritious school lunches), and revive outlets for dairy-farmer products that have been hampered by pandemic-era life.

But herd immunity, the threshold at which the spread of the virus is broken, doesn’t happen on its own. It takes a lot of shots in a lot of arms — and a lot of trust, as people who for whatever reason may be hesitant to receive a vaccine shy away from inoculation. This is frequently the case in rural areas, where many lives are naturally socially distanced, human interactions are fewer and access to health care facilities and educational materials may not be as readily available.

That’s where dairy farms and their cooperatives come in. Dairy farmers are leaders in their communities, as well as significant employers. They’re also usually part of a cooperative, which has expertise and resources that can be applied in many areas, including public health. They’re no stranger to shots – people who work with cows knew the word “coronavirus” for decades before it became socially distanced coffee shop conversation – and they know how to organize a vaccination effort.

For all these reasons, and more, dairy has emerged as a key part of outreach to medically underserved rural areas, making sure those regions – and with it, the nation — has its fair chance to overcome COVID-19. Below is only a sampling of grassroots efforts in the dairy community to keep America safe and get it moving again.

  • Farmers and cooperatives across the country are putting together vaccination events for farmers, staff and farmworkers in the fields where they live and work. Natural Prairie Dairy, a member of Select Milk Producers Inc. organized a vaccination event for 300 of its employees at its organic dairy farm in Dalhart, Texas. And Michigan Milk Producers Association has been driving employees to vaccination sites when necessary: “We worked with the local health department and got all employees that wanted a vaccine scheduled on a few different dates,” said Gertie van den Goor, an MMPA member and dairy farmer outside Marlette, MI. “We drove everyone who needed transportation up there, and most of them were able to go during work time. We have around 80-90 percent of our employees fully vaccinated.”
  • At Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Association, employees receive a $50 Amazon gift card upon receiving a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine; at Dairy Farmers of America, co-op employees are offered two hours of pay for each vaccine they receive; and at Lone Star Milk Producers, employees can take paid time off to get their shots;
  • Northwest Dairy Association/Darigold, Prairie Farms and Associated Milk Producers Inc., among others, have organized vaccinations at their processing plants;
  • And at NMPF, we’re offering our COVID-19 vaccination resource toolkit, with materials in English and Spanish, to make sure that people who have been putting themselves at risk every day as part of the essential dairy workforce have access to the information they need. That’s in addition to the wide range of materials we’ve developed and publicized on how to maintain a safe work area and ensure best practices throughout the pandemic.

To get the nation where it needs to go in COVID-19 protection, it’s going to take efforts big and small, from organizations that care, across the country. To be successful, those organizations need to be ones that live in the same places as the people are who need vaccinations and are led by people trusted by those who may be vaccine-hesitant, or simply find it harder to get to one. As a 50-state, 24/7 industry, dairy is in these places and well-positioned to make a difference. It’s already happening – and it will continue to do so until the return to something resembling normal that everyone craves has arrived.

Together, we can do this. And dairy’s an important part of “we.”

Dairy Farmers to Seek Emergency USDA Hearing on Class I Mover Reform

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Milk Producers Federation’s Board of Directors voted today to request an emergency USDA hearing on a Federal Milk Marketing Order proposal to restore fairness for farmers in the Class I fluid milk price mover. The endorsement of the board, which represents dairy farmers and cooperatives nationwide, follows approval from the organization’s Executive Committee last week.

The NMPF plan would ensure that farmers recover lost revenue and establish more equitable distribution of risk among dairy farmers and processors. The current mover was adopted in the 2018 farm bill and intended to be revenue neutral while facilitating increased price risk management by fluid milk bottlers. But the new Class I mover contributed to disorderly marketing conditions last year during the height of the pandemic and cost dairy farmers over $725 million in lost income. NMPF’s proposal would help recoup the lost revenue and ensure that neither farmers nor processors are disproportionately harmed by future significant price disruptions.

“As the COVID-19 experience has shown, market stresses can shift the mover in ways that affect dairy farmers much more than processors. This was not the intent of the Class I mover formula negotiated within the industry,” said Randy Mooney, the dairy farmer chairman of NMPF’s Board of Directors. “The current mover was explicitly developed to be a revenue-neutral solution to the concerns of fluid milk processors about hedging their price risk, with equity among market participants a stated goal.

“Dairy farmers were pleased with the previous method of determining Class I prices and had no need to change it, but we tried to accommodate the concerns of fluid processors for better risk management. Unfortunately, the severe imbalances we’ve seen in the past year plainly show that a modified approach is necessary. We will urge USDA to adopt our plan to restore equity and create more orderly marketing conditions,” Mooney said.

While the current Class I mover was designed to improve the ability of fluid milk handlers to hedge milk prices using the futures market, it was also expected to be revenue-neutral compared to the formula it replaced. But that has not been the case. The significant gaps between Class III and IV prices that developed during the pandemic exposed dairy farmers to losses that were not experienced by processors, showing the need for a formula that better accounts for disorderly market conditions.

NMPF’s proposal would modify the current Class I mover, which adds $0.74/cwt to the monthly average of Classes III and IV, by adjusting this amount every two years based on conditions over the prior 24 months, with the current mover remaining the floor. NMPF’s request will be to limit the hearing specifically to proposed changes to the mover, after which USDA would have 30 days to issue an action plan that would determine whether USDA would act on an emergency basis​.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Food Box, Vaccinations, and Butter’s Bright Future

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the rise and fall of the Farmers to Families Food Box program and the potential for improved food-assistance programs, along with the need for stepped-up rural COVID vaccinations and how the pandemic could brighten the long-term outlook for butter. Discussion on WEKZ radio, Janesville, Wisconsin.

First Quarter 2021 CWT-Assisted Export Sales Top 42 Million Pounds of Product

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

In the first three months of 2021, CWT assisted member cooperatives in securing 218 contracts to sell 11.8 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 8.8 million pounds of butter, 3.6 million pounds of anhydrous milkfat (AMF), 13.5 million pounds of whole milk powder and 4.4 million pounds of cream cheese. The milk equivalent of these 2021 contracts is 540 million pounds on a milkfat basis. The product is going to over 100 customers in 26 countries around the world. All the product will be delivered in 2021.

The year-to-date totals include March contracts for 3.7 million pounds of cheese, 1.5 million pounds of butter, 1.6 million pounds of AMF, 7 million pounds of whole milk powder and 901,691 pounds of cream cheese.

Assisting CWT member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program expands the demand for U.S. dairy products. This, in turn, positively impacts all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

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

All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available at http://www.cwt.coop/membership.

NMPF’s Sweeney-Murphy Explains Vaccination Resources

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF’s Theresa Sweeney-Murphy says confusion can vary by state or even among counties for when for COVID vaccines will be available for essential food and ag workers. “There are 50 states, and they each have different plans for distributing vaccines,” she said in an interview with the Brownfield Ag News She says a new toolbox aims to answer COVID questions and help dairy farmers navigate the continually changing eligibility requirements.

NMPF vaccine toolbox guides farmers through requirements

CWT Assisted Sales in February Total 14.2 Million Pounds of Dairy Exports

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

CWT assisted member cooperatives in securing 64 contracts with sales of 5.2 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 3.9 million pounds of butter, 3.5 million pounds of whole milk powder, 1 million pounds of anhydrous milkfat (AMF) and 1.2 pounds of cream cheese. The product is going to customers in Asia, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Oceania. The product will be shipped during the months of February through August 2021.

These transactions bring the 2021 total of the CWT-assisted product sales contracts to 8.117 million pounds of cheese, 7.277 million pounds of butter, 6.495 million pounds of whole milk powder, 2.013 million pounds of AMF, and 3.530 million pounds of cream cheese. These contracts will move the equivalent of 368.4 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis overseas in 2021.

Assisting CWT member cooperatives to gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program, in the long-term expands the demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them. This, in turn, positively impacts all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

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

All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available at www.cwt.coop/membership.

DMC’s January Payout Exceeds Annual Premium Costs

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The margin in January for the Dairy Margin Coverage program, the main federal dairy safety-net initiative, was $7.14 per cwt, down from $8.78 per cwt in December. That generated a payment of $2.36 per cwt for $9.50 per cwt coverage for January – which, by itself, was already more than enough to repay the full cost of signing up for the program at the maximum coverage level for the entire year.

The January all-milk price dropped another dollar from December to $17.50 per cwt. Meanwhile, the remaining $0.64 per cwt monthly drop in the margin was generated almost entirely by increases in corn and soybean meal costs. The one-month increase in the margin’s feed cost was the highest for the DMC as well as for its predecessor, the Margin Protection Program, which was initiated in 2014.

With current futures prices indicating that the all-milk price won’t rise above January’s level for several months and that corn will keep rising and soybean meal will not get much cheaper over the same period, the program is expected to generate substantial payments in 2021.