Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:26:00 GMT
Cooperatives Working Together announced today that it has tentatively accepted 194 bids its latest herd retirement, representing 34,442 cows and 653,893,409 pounds of milk. Farmers had submitted a total of 209 herd retirement bids to CWT.
To see the complete story, click here .
Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:30:00 GMT
Hilmar Cheese is asking the Dallam County Commissioners Court to endorse the issuance of up to $24.5 million in bonds to finance part of an expansion of its plant outside Dalhart. The expansion, which will roughly double the plant’s capacity and allow it to produce 640-pound blocks of natural American-style cheese, will cost more than $100 million. It will house more milk storage and additional production lines.
For the full story, click here.
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:31:00 GMT
This analysis provides the quantitative results of eliminating certain aspects of current federal dairy policies and replacing them with the “Foundation for the Future” (FFTF) program. The analysis of the FFTF program is made relative to the FAPRI March 2010 baseline that is summarized at: http://www.fapri.missouri.edu /outreach/publications/2010/FAPRIMU_Report01_10.pdf. There are four major policy changes considered in this analysis: 1) Elimination of the Dairy Product Price Support Program (DPPSP) 2) Elimination of the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program 3) Introduction of the Dairy Producer Margin Protection Program (DPMPP) 4) Introduction of the Dairy Market Stabilization Program (DMSP) The analysis does not incorporate the changes to the federal order system under consideration in the FFTF program.
To obtain this report click here.
Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:25:00 GMT
Fresh U.S. government data rattled corn markets on Wednesday, sending futures prices soaring 9% and raising questions about the precision of earlier estimates. Corn futures prices, which just a day earlier reached a nine-month low, jumped after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said stockpiles were much lower than the market expected. The government on Wednesday also said the acreage now dedicated to planting corn for the coming crop is below forecasts. The news was especially surprising because the USDA has in the past few months been sending bearish signals to the market, announcing in January that the most recent crop was a record.
For the full story, click here.
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:43:00 GMT
Officials of La Farge-based Organic Valley say its dairy farmer members will be able to increase their milk production Aug. 1 because the outlook for organic milk sales has improved.
And the organic farmer cooperative said it expects a 16.6 percent increase in its total sales this year, after seeing sales remain flat in 2009. The co-op expects about $610 million in sales this year, up from $523 million in 2009.
For the full story click here.
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:38:00 GMT
Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., says he’s in favor of shifting current direct farm payment funding into an expanded crop insurance plan, and then getting rid of payment limitations in the 2012 farm bill. The Minnesota Democrat told attendees of a National Farm Business Management Conference June 14 in Fargo, N.D., that he needed their help in more big policy shifts for the new farm bill. He talked about the need to make sure the safety net for agriculture should “fall on production,” rather than trying to pick winners or losers on the basis of farm size.
For the full story click here.
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:10:00 GMT
Last Thursday Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) introduced S. 3531, the “Dairy Price Stabilization Act of 2010.” Joining Senator Sanders in co-sponsoring the legislation were Senators Patty Murray (Washington) and Patrick Leahy (Vermont). S. 3531. This bill is virtually identical to the legislation introduced last month in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Jim Costa (California), Peter Welch (Vermont), Rick Larsen (Washington), Joe Courtney (Connecticut), and John Larson (Connecticut). That bill, H.R. 5288, is also titled the “Dairy Price Stabilization Act of 2010.”
To obtain a copy of this bill click here.
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:18:00 GMT
The National Milk Producers Federation’s Board of Directors overwhelmingly agreed today move forward with a variety of changes in federal dairy policies that will better protect dairy producers, and position them more favorably in an increasingly volatile global marketplace. The NMPF Board voted Wednesday to support the package of concepts contained in the Federation’s approach to reforming dairy policy entitled “Foundation for the Future.” NMPF President and CEO Jerry Kozak said that package will be used as the basis for the future direction of the dairy provisions in the next Farm Bill, or in some other form of federal legislation that Congress may consider in the future. For the full story click here.
For an overview of the NMPF proposal go here.
Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:31:00 GMT
A free public workshop on competition and regulatory issues in the dairy industry will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 25 in the Union Theater at UW-Madison, 800 Langdon St. The workshop is the third in a series of five around the nation being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Areas of focus on June 25 may include concentration, marketplace transparency and market dynamics in the dairy industry.
For the full story click here.
Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:48:00 GMT
Question: What do you do if you are a dairy producer, you have to ship your milk to a supplier and the supplier dictates the price?
The answer, according to leaders of a dairy advocacy group who spoke to a room full of dairy farmers in Tulare Wednesday, is to band together to control how much milk you produce.
The problem is there are 60,000 dairy farmers in the U.S. who have to agree - not to mention the approximately 150 dairies in Kings County, large and small, that produce hundreds of millions of dollars of milk a year.
The subject of Wednesday’s well-attended meeting was a bill recently introduced by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, that would provide incentives for producers to control their production. The bill comes a year after one of the worst downturns in the history of the state’s dairy industry, with prices collapsing to unsustainable levels and staying there for months. For the full story click here.
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