And another dairy herd buyout; WSSP Ram and Ewe Sale
Washington Ag Today July 17, 2009 Having just completed its largest-ever dairy herd retirement buyout, Cooperatives Working Together is conducting another round of dairy herd reductions. Chris Galen with the National Milk Producers Federation, which manages CWT, says there is still an imbalance between supply and demand. Galen: “We know that about a third of the people who submitted bids back in April, for our previous herd retirement, did not have their bids accepted. So we would expect perhaps that they would be interested in this. And then again, given the financial pressure on farms there may be some additional farmers all around the country that might be interested.” The bid deadline is next Friday July 24th and Galen says there is a new wrinkle; the maximum bid that will be accepted is $5.25 a hundredweight. Galen: “Now, a lot of people may submit that, but the other thing we are telling people is just because you submit $5.25 doesn‘t mean that bid may be accept because anything lower than that may be considered first. We are just saying that the maximum price, given where cow prices are right now, is $5.25 a hundredweight.” Four Washington dairy herds were accepted in the last herd retirement round. A congressional panel was recently told that dairy producers across the country are facing an unprecedented financial catastrophe. The global economic downturn has meant the loss of export markets for U.S. producers. The Washington State Sheep Producers hold their annual ram and ewe sale tomorrow at the Grant County Fairgrounds in Moses Lake. The sale starts at 1:30 p.m. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
