Dairies need more say

Dairies need more say

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
In all the years that I have been reporting on dairy prices, I don't believe I've ever heard at the prices of dairy products are steady. They have always seemed to be in flux and I have always worried about the plight of dairy farmers. While milk prices continue to improve in Idaho and across the nation, there’s still work to be done to maintain milk profits. In Washington The American Farm Bureau Federation released a report on milk pricing reform, calling for more democracy and an equal program for dairy farmers. The AFBF’s John Newton says voting delegates this past January adopted many new policies including giving farmers an opportunity to cast an individual and confidential ballot, improving the price discovery and milk pricing formulas, improved risk-sharing between processors and dairy farmers, and then more uniformity in how milk pricing and pooling provisions operate around the ten Federal Milk Marketing Orders. He says that dairy farmers deserve more input on the prices of their products.

While milk prices continue to improve in Idaho and across the nation, there’s still work to be done to maintain milk profits.

The AFBF’s John Newton: “Our voting delegates this past January adopted many of those policies including giving farmers an opportunity to cast an individual and confidential ballot, improving the price discovery and milk pricing formulas, improved risk-sharing between processors and dairy farmers, and then more uniformity in how milk pricing and pooling provisions operate around the ten Federal Milk Marketing Orders. 

Newton says a number of challenges, including those related to COVID-19, highlight the need for reforms. 

“We’ve got cheese prices that have more than doubled in the past month and a half where fluid milk prices remain depressed. We’ve got mass de-pooling of milk across the country and record-large deductions from farmers' milk checks. And that all points to the need to thoroughly review milk pricing rules and think about how we can modernize Federal Milk Marketing Orders to today’s dairy economy,” said Newton. 

Outside of the 2018 farm bill, the program has not undergone substantial change in almost two decades.

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