Federal Milk Marketing Order Reform Tesimony from One Dairy Farmer

National Milk Producers Federation, and board member representing Dairy Farmers of America, Chris Kraft has been very involved in the federal milk marketing order and testified when the hearings are taking place. As of right now, he explains the industry is in a holding pattern while USDA reviews the 1000s of pages of testimony.

“The class, one issue was the biggest one, you know, that was the one where in during the COVID time, the industry lost almost a billion dollars because of the change that was made. And we've really that's kind of the thing that precipitated us going through the whole thing and trying to get this sorted out. But we've asked to go back to the higher up instead of the average of class three and four. It used to be the higher up and we're we've asked to go back to that so that we won't get hurt again, like we did during COVID. And there's a whole make allowance for the plants. That's a bit of a touchy issue, because that money comes directly out of dairy farmers' checks. So the plants the proprietary companies want to raise that. We're not so crazy about that.”

In addition, Kraft says he also asked for reform and the formulas used for protein and butterfat designations. Kraft and his wife Mary own and operate Kraft Family Dairies in northeastern Colorado.