CWT Completes Eighth Herd Retirement Round

Posted by Brian Gould Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:03:00 GMT

Farm audits for the second herd retirement implemented by Cooperatives Working Together in 2009 have been completed, and the majority of the 74,114 cows that produced 1.5 billion pounds of milk have been sent to processing plants. In addition, 2,958 bred heifers also were removed through CWT’s eighth herd retirement round. In this most recent round, CWT removed 274 herds in 38 states. When combined with the herd retirements completed last winter and earlier this spring, CWT has removed 225,783 cows that produced 4.5 billion pounds of milk. In addition, the nearly 3,000 bred heifers taken in this herd retirement bring the total removed by CWT in the past nine months to 5,016. CWT received 312 bids from dairies in 39 states during the bidding process in July, which offered a set maximum acceptable bid price. As a result of the selection and auditing process CWT follows, along with some withdrawals by bidders, the final number of bids processed totaled 274, down 20 from the initial tentative tally.  For the full news story click here.