Class 1 Pricing in FMMO Modernization Still a Pain Point

We’ve been letting this one digest for a while, but there is still pushback against the USDA proposal for modernizing the Federal Milk Marketing Orders. Chris Galen, the senior vice president of member services and governance for the National Milk Producers Federation, says much of the pushback has to do with Class One pricing…

“I would say, for the most part, the things that farm organizations wanted, dairy farm organizations wanted, were reflected in that proposal. So, one of the things, though, that I know dairy farmers are concerned with is the Class 1 pricing and how they're treated in that. So, that was one of the things that we asked USDA to take a closer look at it and adjust. The folks from the Department of Agriculture are aware that there are some unhappy campers there.”

He says modernizing the FMMOs is a tough job…

“When they're trying to do a national program like Class 1 pricing, it’s just more federal orders overall. It's hard to squeeze the balloon evenly so that there's no one who’s feeling squeezed in a disproportionate way, even if it's just one county or a few counties in one part of the country. So, USDA is going to try to make everyone happy. Hopefully, they will address at least the most serious concerns.”

Chris Galen of the National Milk Producers Federation.