New Milk Leaders Ponder Federal Milk Marketing Order Updates

Gregg Doud, set to assume the role of CEO at the National Milk Producers Federation, delves into the significant challenges that lie ahead in his upcoming leadership role.

“The obvious challenge is I have to learn all these different particulars about Federal Milk Marketing Orders and dairy policy and risk management programs. I’ve been in Washington 31 years now, which I always tell people means I’m of no value to anyone in the outside world any longer, but I have a lot of background as I’ve worked up in the Senate and been in town a long time. But I’ve never done dairy so this is a new thing I have to learn.”

While the NMPF closely monitors the Federal Milk Marketing Orders update process, Doud emphasizes the substantial scope of the task at hand.

“Not many people have gone through this. It’s been 23 years since the last time they did this, and that’s the funny conversation in the office: ‘Now we know why.’ This is a very tedious and gigantic undertaking. But I think the key thing that National Milk has done here, and Jim has done a very good job of building consensus among the National Milk membership in deciding how we’re going to this and what we all agree on as a group and push forward with that as a gameplan, and I think that’s paid huge dividends.”

Doud will step into the position of NMPF upon the retirement of the current CEO, Jim Mulhern.