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AFBF members want to evaluate the milk marketing system

Dairy farmers at Farm Bureau’s Joint National Commodity Conference want policy to modernize the milk marketing system.

Idaho dairyman and committee chair Steve Ballard tells Brownfield they’re crafting policy to protect dairy farmers’ access to markets that will hopefully be adopted at Farm Bureau’s annual meeting.  “There’s a lot of dairy producers around the country that are losing their ability to have a home for their milk to go to.  When that happens, a lot of dairies are going out of business.”

He says the Federal Milk Marketing Order needs to be reviewed.  “I think the system is almost 90 years old and I think it’s time to be looked at.”

Ballard says he doesn’t expect supply management policy to be debated like what’s being done with National Farmers Union groups, but some cooperatives might need to better control production internally.  “I think in certain co-ops, if they’re outpacing their processing capacity, they need to look at supply management for their system, but overall for the U.S., I don’t know if that’s necessary.”

The committee will take back draft language to their home states to be considered through a grassroots process at the county and state level to reappear in some form again in January at the AFBF meeting. Some policy reforms of the committee included the creation of a coalition led by farmers evaluate the current milk marketing system, milk be priced in a two-tier system and distressed or dumped milk be allocated to food banks at no cost to farmers.

Fifteen state Farm Bureaus were in Michigan this week, including Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, to discuss pressing commodity issues and policy.

AUDIO: Interview with Steve Ballard

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