Maybe it is just me but, if you've seen one hearing you've seen them all. For instance, Mr. Paul Kruse, testifying for IDFA said:
Why? First, our Dairy Product Price Support program encourages the production of nonfat dry milk, even as few food processors want to use that product. On the other hand, there is growing demand for products like milk protein concentrates which many food processors now source from other countries because the United States does not produce near enough. Simply put, our policies encourage investment in plants to produce nonfat dry milk and not the specialized milk proteins demanded by today’s marketplace. Our problem is not that our domestic industry can't compete with imports but that our government encourages the production of other products.
Where have we heard that logic before? And, what exactly does it mean? Does it mean the government will buy NFDM at less than world prices? Does it mean the big co-ops are totally dependent upon government programs? Who knows?
We do know, because there is data to support the knowledge, instead of pure speculation, the U.S. export value of a unit of MPCs has fallen 28.4% year to date through August. On the other hand, imports of MPCs have only fallen 3.6% per unit. sounds like a win/win - not really.
Note;
ReplyDeleteLate last p.m. on Dairyline.Com a post announced that the B.O.B. Admin. was moving ahead to prosecution of the D.o J.'s 2006 investigation of DFA/Dean. DFA issued a defiant statement: Dean was not answering their phone and shut down their home page. Might that faint light at the end of dairy's tunnel be something other than an oncoming train??? Dare we hope we might be looking at brighter days?
No matter what this new excitment portends we cowmilkers must keep our eyes on the prize; a thorough reworking of our national milk pricing scheme... at some,as yet, undetermined date Sen. Gillibrand will be holding field hearings on reforming the Federal milk pricing system: we must fall-out in force and present our ideas with a will.
I personally say to hell with price of production schemes: we need to tie the farm price to retail prices; that is the only true, transparent, indicator of value for price discovery. When farm price moves in lock-step with store price both farmer and consumer can have some sense of fairness. In such a shift, farm share must recieve a substantial re-allocation of the consumer's dairyfood dollar; there's more than a few demons in those details... 'bout all I got; later, Nate Wilson
Back to the NFDM NASS prices- unbelievable, they lowered it this week
ReplyDeleteWill the new senate bill set the price for the floor or the price for dairy products. It seems that the claim is made that producers are paid the price set by the government; which is the past 12 months has been the bottom of the barrel; this went into effect the minute the ink was dry on the extension of the MILC payments. How will this new bill help dairy producers? Funny that NFDM seems to be in many products along with other milk components. But is not needed by food processors; who do you think sticks it in them? The ghost of the chocolate milk carton?
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