{"id":70220,"date":"2016-06-24T00:39:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T04:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=70220"},"modified":"2016-06-23T21:46:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T01:46:28","slug":"opinion-does-anyone-care-what-is-happening-to-the-average-dairy-farmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=70220","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Does Anyone Care What Is Happening to the Average Dairy Farmer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cows-in-field\"<\/a>by Arden Tewksbury, Manager<\/p>\n

Several months ago we reported and we continue to report that dairy farmers are receiving a milk check that is 40 percent below 2014\u2019s price.\u00a0Finally, other people have started to use percentage figures, but none of these people are urging any steps to eliminate this financial mess!<\/p>\n

Does it have to be this way?\u00a0Of course not!\u00a0The solution to me is very clear. The Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act can correct many of the inequities that are facing dairy farmers today.\u00a0If this Act had been passed in previous years, then in all essence, the average dairy farmer would not be in the financial crisis they are facing today.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine many of the reasons why dairy farmers are in their present situation.\u00a0In 1981, the United States Congress froze the dairy support price at $13.10 per cwt. (hundred-weight) but in a few days, it went to $13.60.\u00a0 Since that time, they continued to drop the support price until it reached $9.90 per cwt.\u00a0(Unbelievable!)\u00a0Congress also passed legislation that compelled dairy farmers to pay money into the dairy herd termination act as well as the milk diversion program.\u00a0Later dairy farmers were victimized by the Gramm-Rudman deductions.<\/p>\n

Later, the U.S. Congress mandated the Federal Milk Marketing Orders be consolidated to the present number.\u00a0Some of us testified at a milk hearing in Alexandria, Va., urging the new consolidated Order 1 to consider the dairy farmer\u2019s cost of production; however, this was done in vain.<\/p>\n

What did dairy farmers lose by the consolidation in Milk Orders?\u00a0Well, they were mandated to have their milk price on a product price formula which included the milk processors to receive a make allowance at the dairy farmers\u2019 expense.<\/p>\n

What else did dairy farmers lose? They lost the cooperative payment provision that was contained in Order 2, which mandated the Market Administrator to compel the dairy cooperatives to market a producer\u2019s milk in the event any producer had lost his market.<\/p>\n

Look at what is happening today!\u00a0Former Order #2 producers also lost farm point pricing, which mandated a dairy farmer had his milk priced at his farm, not at a plant 200 miles away.\u00a0Dairy farmers also lost the base excess plan that was contained in former Order #4. Improvements could have been made in this plan that would have prevented large corporate farmers from flooding the market.<\/p>\n

So what did Congress do to further advance the escalation of many dairy farmers?\u00a0The current Farm Bill eliminated the milk price support program and eliminated the MILC program.\u00a0In its place, they passed a very controversial and unethical Margin Insurance Program which does absolutely nothing for dairy farmers to receive a fair price for their milk.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t this a great record for Congress? We haven\u2019t even mentioned some of the trade agreements that have injured the American family farm! Also, please remember some of the New York politicians put on a great push to encourage NY dairy farmers to produce more milk for the upcoming yogurt plants.\u00a0One plant failed; another plant is still in existence using a lot of NY milk but opened a plant in Idaho consequently using less New York milk.<\/p>\n

We and other organizations always proclaimed that dairy farmers should not be encouraged to produce more milk for the export market.\u00a0Look at what has happened!<\/p>\n

Now Mr. Dairy Farmer, do you think the US Congress has been fair to you?\u00a0Of course not.\u00a0It\u2019s high time that all dairy farmers get behind the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act.\u00a0The Act could play a major role in stabilizing a fair price to all dairy farmers; however, if you as a dairy farmer don\u2019t get behind this bill and urge all Senators and House members to support this bill, then the alternative will be more and more of what you are going through today.<\/p>\n

Pro-Ag can be reached at 570-833-5776<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Arden Tewksbury, Manager Several months ago we reported and we continue to report that dairy farmers are receiving a milk check that is 40 percent below 2014\u2019s price.\u00a0Finally, other people have started to use percentage figures, but none of these people are urging any steps to eliminate this financial mess! Does it have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23679,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agfarming","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}