08/28/06 Dairy Decision Making Tool

Dairy tools to make sound decisions. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. U.S. dairy farmers provide us with a safe, nutritious supply of milk and other wholesome dairy foods. Rigorous testing of all milk ensures that whatever type of milk you choose - it will be safe for you and your family. Lately - some dairy producers have been approached by buyers wanting specialty milk from cows not supplemented with bovine somatotropin - an FDA-approved technology sold by Monsanto under the brand name Posilac. Kevin Holloway - President of Monsanto Dairy Business - says it's all about providing dairy farmers with the right to choose safe, effective tools. HOLLOWAY: Monsanto is a company that invests heavily in technologies that benefits U.S. farmers. Our business is 100% dedicated to agriculture so we can only be successful if the technologies we develop help farmers. For the last 12 years, U.S. dairy farmers have benefited by the having the choice to use Posilac. According to Holloway - Monsanto believes dairy producers should have the freedom to determine how best to manage their operations - and which technologies provide the best return. HOLLOWAY: Buyers of specialized milk should pay a premium if they want to limit a dairy producer's choice to use an FDA approved technology such as Posilac. We believe at a minimum, that premium should be guaranteed to compensate for lost profitability, handling and verification costs of specialty milk. To help dairy farmers make decisions that are in their economic best interest - Holloway says Monsanto is providing customers with a producer decision guide titled Dairying Equals Choices. The guide outlines important questions for dairy producers to ask if approached with requests to supply milk from cows not supplemented with POSILAC. That includes - Holloway says - how much premium the buyers of specialty milk should pay for a producer to give up the choice of using this technology. HOLLOWAY: Monsanto is providing our customers as well as other dairy farmers with a producer decision guide. This guide outlines the financial consequences of giving up the choice to use Posilac and future implication of giving up the right to use any safe, effective technology without adequate compensation for the lost benefits. Even for those farmers who don't choose to use POSILAC - Holloway says there's a significant downside to supplying specialty milk for little or no premium. HOLLOWAY: The fundamental issue is about producer choice to use all safe and valuable technologies. Request for specialty milk and other foods have not stopped at targeting a single product. An American dairy farmers choice to use a variety of FDA approved hormones, antibiotics and other beneficial technologies is also threatened by dairy product labels that imply they are not safe. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.