DairyLine asks: Do you favor a national supply management program?
According to a poll currently being conducted by DairyLine Radio, 51% of respondents favor a national milk supply management program; 37% do not; and 12% are undecided. For survey updates and comments, visit www.dairyline.com.
Some comments posted in response to the survey follow:
Yes we need to control the oversupply of milk to take the volatility out of the market and a supply management system could help. The biggest advantage I see with supply management in the Canadian markets is the control over the processors. You see records earning by processors when producers are losing money. A better way to control milk would be to address quality issues…lower the SCC to 400,000 and enforce it. In addition, cull Johne’s positive cows and compensate with an indemnity payment. Cull cows with lameness score of 4 and 5 to improve animal welfare. This improves the dairy industries image, milk quality and a method to control milk volume independent of size.
Doug Waterman
The dairy industry needs a goverment support price based on production cost with a better pricing structure and the dairy industry needs to take care of supply management on its own with more industry participation. CWT has worked and with 70% support. I would rather have that than the goverment any time. CWT has helped retired dairymen and those that want to exit the business. CWT today is easing the pain, and helping producers go out of business that realy would rather stay in business or are being forced out by their bank. CWT needs some new creative ideas on how to reduce milk without forcing dairyman out of bussiness unless that is the choice the producer wants. There are producers that own more than one dairy farm or are willing to reduce output and participate. I dont think continuing to squeese dairymen out of bussiness in the US is good idea. I am in favor of the support price as a safty net, however today its a little to low. After $20 milk I never thought the price could go back to support. That demostrates that with out a support price processors would just let the market go as low as it wants to go and in the long run the whole dairy industry looses. The goverment won’t loose on support, they need products for their programs and move product back in the market when demand comes back. As long as support is not to high and based on some kind of industry cost of production. It needs to be a safty net that does not guarentee profit. Dairymen should not have to bear a $5.00 lose to hit it either. Industry needs stability with risk and competition.
Eddie Schaap
I have a supply management plan that our industry would be wise to follow. Lower SCC to 400,000, and actually enforce it. That would put our products on a more level playing field in the world markets. Cull all Johne’s cows. No link has yet been established to human disease, but if one ever is we will see a backlash from the public that will make our current situation look like a cake walk. Lastly, and my personal favorite, we need to do a better job at enhancing our public image. Organizations like PETA and HSUS are doing everything in their power to paint all livestock industries in a bad light. We all need to start actively taking steps to counter their negative impacts, or we risk losing more consumers of our products. This means treating animals humanely, no tail docking, increased use of polled genetics or nerve blockers for dehorning, enforcing a strict milk quality program, and a move towards more moderately sized farms. Quota systems around the world are not working and people are trying to figure out how to get out of them, yet individuals in our industry are blindly leading us towards that system. It will result in fewer young people being able to participate in our profession, reduced value of our cattle, less participation in the international market (who was complaining about that when we saw $25 mailbox prices, they were a result of our ability to market to increased demand), and a drive towards larger facilities (after all bigger facilities would start with more quota and soon have equity to buy out smaller producers as they leave). We have seen low prices before and common wisdom says we will see them again. We need to learn to tighten our belts and deal with it.
Nick
To have a quota system you need to make a few assumptions. You must assume that the government being more involved will help the dairy farmer. It will not, what the government will do is drain even more money from us with their bureaucracy and regulations. And regional quotas will be set using politics and lobbyists, not what is good for the farmer or consumer. Another assumption is that it will increase the quality of life for the farmer like in Canada. Too late for that. The results of a quota system will not be like it is in Canada. We already have large super-sized dairies and they will get all the quota. In less than five years the small farms will be all squeezed out, and do not assume they will be paid for their quota. If milk cooperatives will increase in size and will not be bothered with you small farmers. I do not know what will be considered small, 50 cows, 100, 200, only time will tell. The only winners will be the super-sized dairies and board of directors like NMPF, DFA, etc. This crisis is hurting the large leveraged dairies more than the small farmers with their monthly MILC payments. So go ahead boys, cut your own throats to save them. After all, I am sure they felt bad when they were gobbling up thousand of small farmers to build their leveraged monstrosities during the last few decades. Instead we must end the use of MPCs and break a few monopolies that control the sale milk in certain sections of the country. Too bad NMPF does not support either idea. That should tell you whose payroll they are.
Ken Barniak
I still think a quota system of our own,whether it be regional or otherwise would benifit us. Certainly a quota itself can become very expensive, however look at Canada amd other countries with similar systems in place.They live a better quality of life with less cows.This country was founded on the family farm and not the factory farm…
Quin
I do not support a supply management system. We need to take a counter cyclical approach to managing are business. Expand in downturns = smaller loans = lower cost of production which leads to profit taking in upturns in the market. Pay the income taxes rather than buy more equipment at the end of the year, that just drives up cost of production. Also, better financing options. Instead of straightline pay back on our loans, how about an accelerated/decelerated model that is tied to milk price?
Ryan
CWT has been successful but we need 100% participation.Then build in control factors within CWT that would regulate production. We need to come to grips with the process of other industries and produce less than is needed in order to demand a price that works.
Charles Untz
I do not support a government administered supply management program. Do we really think that a board could effectively manage the national herd? Once we allow our herd production to be managed by the USDA then they will soon be taking more liberties from our management control. I would like to see changes made in milk pricing. There are so few buyers trading cheese on the CME that they can manipulate the market too easily. I would also like to see higher milk quality standards. If processors would enforce the 750,000 scc limit we would immediately see almost 1% of the cows sent to slaughter.
Greg Andersen
CWT is okay. It is industry run. Any supply management program would need to be industry owned and operated. If we allow the government to manage, own or operate a supply management program, we will all suffer. The Government is only good at creating problems. The government has never fixed anything. But what do we do restrict sexed semen? Cap herd size? Ban rBST? It all smacks of big brother, not the America I was brought up in. Capitalism can hurt, but I like it better than anything else I’ve seen.
David Callister
80% of the U.S. milk comes from 20% of the farms. This is not good or bad, just a fact of life. It is much easier to expand cow numbers on larger farms because the numbers of replacement heifers born is huge compared to smaller operations. I would prefer to see dairy used to fight world hunger than mandatory curtailment of production. However we cannot sit by and watch all our good dairymen go broke which is taking place under current conditions. I can tolerate the concept of supply management so long as policies written governing it are flexible and quickly responsive to market needs.
Paul Dersam
I am not interested in any supply management program that uses past production as a base. This only rewards those that have expanded prodution in the past.
David Hallberg
I am fully convinced supply is not the problem. Our government and milk cooperatives are not doing the job marketing milk products within and especially out of our country. Millions of people in other countries could use US dairy products if a way was found to market to them and if we could compete more strongly with other countries. Additionally, milk product is coming into THIS country in various forms, particulary dried powders, in the name of free trade. It is interesting how our government and cooperatives work so hard allowing our foreign friends to make money while our local producers struggle to survive. Restricting supply is another way to cripple any producer working hard on his own operation to either more efficiently increace milk production or increase herd numbers. There are plenty of places and ways to increase milk marketing. It is time for the cooperatives and government to get it done.
Andrew Reed
One alternative is to eliminate Johne’s infected cows, which addresses two important issues: surplus milk and milk quality.
Mike Hutjens
People, there is too much cheese and butter in inventory. That has to go down for milk price to go up. To do that production has to go down by cows sold or farms sold out. Cost of production pricing or higher support pricing will only slow the rate the supply drops and end up keeping milk price low longer.
John V
It is 30 years too late for supply management. Lower the SCC limit to 250,000.
Miles A. Conklin
Unfortunatly, we’ll probably never see much more than 75% participation on any voluntary program, and everytime we request government envolvement it turns into more government control. Other ag industries admire us for taking things in our own hands (cwt). Seems like we could tweek this program in ways to strive for 100% participation, continue with what we are doing, but allow dairymen to participate with a 5%herd reduction with 30%beef bonus, 10%reduction @40% beef bonus, 20%reduction @50% beef bonus. Should get closer to 100% participation, sure we’ll be getting rid of tail enders, but aren’t we already kinda doing that at 70% participation?
How about getting the federal orders to mandate the same standards in all bottled milk, similar to Californias standards. 3.5 Butterfat and 8.75 milk solids. The milk’s taste is consistant, it taste better and is more nutritious. In a time where Government wants more health conscious products delivered to the consumer this one should be easy. If these standards were adopted today the U.S. would immediately become a milk deficit country. Guess who doesn’t like the standards fellow dairymen? DEANS FOODS and all the other processors. They have been fighting this succesfully for years. In this age of information we should be able to get this information to the public so they could demand this higher standard bottled milk. It takes fortifying with condensed to meet these standards and guess what condensed milk is made of? MORE MILK Get on the band wagon boys.
Producers,
AIG and other lending institutions pushed the world economies to the brink because they had few parameters and were basically unregulated resulting in millions of bad loans. You can’t blame the sales people for doing their jobs well, but it’s not good for the country or world economies.
The same applies to the dairy industry. What one must realize is, growth to a few is much different to growth most of us think about. Without parameters and with the right players in your circle, you can keep price artifically low, squash competition and pick up the keys to facilities that fit into your agenda. Growth to some is adding vast numbers of cattle 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 and more at a time. Eventually, If you are in the circle that controls the most cows, you will dictate price. You continue to squash the producers who are outside the circle and pick up the keys you want for thirty cents on the dollar. It is predatory, it is not good for the country or the consumer.
Look at the big picture. This is not about 50 cow farms VS 7,000 cow dairies. This is about an agenda. The only way to halt this agenda is to adopt some type of supply management program. Before that, halt imports of unknown origin, lower acceptable SCC or at the very least enforce it. It is not being enforced because that is not part of the agenda of the circle, the processors are making a fortune and they want more of the pie from the producers. This is not about growth the way we used to look at it. This is much bigger and if you study the players you just might see that the majority of producers are not in that camp.
If you have supply management, these people with an agenda cannot execute their agenda without all dairy producers. It prevents them from picking up the keys to what they want, when they want them for little or nothing. The old days of selling your land for millions are gone. It is reverse psychology now. The fastest way to make big money is smashing competition and pick up the pieces for little or nothing.
Butter imports up 129% for first 5 months of year! USDA data shows we do not produce as much milk as we consume, no one is enforcing SCC standards, etc. Look through the smoke screens of too much milk and too many cows. There is an agenda and to see it in motion, it is organized, well financed, slick, contols the media and it is about to swamp the dairy industry.
Funny how the dairy producers not in the circle that testify to congress go it alone and others in the circle have attorneys present and well coached. You bet this is orchestrated and it has cost all dairy producers and their families dearly. Time to start asking the right questions.
The deck has been stacked and not in your favor.
Time to really clean up the industry and make it what it should be for all producers, consumers and the nation!