Unhappy with the state regulated system that does not seem to listen to producers, the state’s dairymen centered in Tulare & Kings Counties are eying a big change that might or might not be a good idea ,shrugs Western United Dairymen president Tom Barcellos. WUD is sponsoring an “educational meeting” September 20 to look at both sides of aligning the dairy industry with the federal program. Any change would require a referendum and Barcellos for one, is not advocating either way, just yet.
The decision to set such a meeting stems from the producer community’s discontent with CDFA’s latest minimal changes to the pricing formulas. “After the last hearing decision, a lot of producers have shown interest in learning more about federal orders and we wanted to give them an opportunity to gain knowledge about its potential impact on California while looking at the pros and cons”, said WUD’s Barcellos.
The 10 a.m. meeting at the Tulare Ag Center’s Banquet Hall inside the Heritage Complex Building will feature Bill Wise, Market Administrator of the Arizona and Pacific Northwest orders, who will provide an overview of federal orders and highlight the differences with the California system. A significant portion of the meeting will be allocated for questions.
Barcellos says like this quandary, the dairy industry is divided on what approach to suggest to Congress who are being urged to pass a Farm Bill this year. This week local industry players including reps of each co-op met with local congressman Devin Nunes but failed to come up with a unified viewpoint on the best way to move forward on the Farm Bill.”We thought we were going to come out of the meeting with unified marching orders but it didn’t happen.”
In August – another group, the California Dairy Campaign (CDC) called on their Congressional delegation to put the Golden State in the Federal Milk Marketing Order system. CDC had also petitioned the California Department of Food and Agriculture last month to raise producer prices (as did WUD) to bring them more in line with surrounding states. CDFA did not adopt the petition so the producer organization is seeking an alternative.
CDC Executive Director, Lynne McBride tells Cheese Market News the organization would like to see something similar to a provision included in the 1996 farm bill. That plan would allow California to maintain its quota system and milk standards while participating in the Federal Orders. McBride says the measure was actually included in the ’96 Farm Bill but was never advanced at the state level and expired.
Barcellos says while producers remain upset with CDFA and Secretary of Ag Ross over their ruling,market conditions have improved in recent weeks due in part to “so many producers going out of business to the point there is dramatically less milk.”
Indeed, CDFA numbers show a 5% decline or more in milk volume(year over year) in some counties in July including San Joaquin,Madera, and Kings,all big volume counties. He also notes higher cheese prices that have bumped up even as the price of corn has come down some. ”I am more optimistic as we approach the end of the year.”
On the other hand don’t look for much expansion in the California dairy industry anymore predicts Barcellos.”Banks are more likely to lend you money to tear down your dairy and plant trees than to enlarge what you have.”