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Wisconsin Farm Bureau delegates would like milk marketing orders replaced

More farmers are calling for changes in the Federal Milk Market Order system.

Karen Gefvert with the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation says delegates at the annual meeting voted Monday in favor of developing a replacement for the present system. “The way in which voting takes place for federal order hearings is somewhat archaic, so that is one of the things that we have asked for in years past is to move from a block voting to a modified block voting. The other is that our pricing system is not transparent. It doesn’t reflect the current marketplace of the products that are produced.”

Gefvert says better price discovery and transparency is important to farmers. “Technology is an amazing thing and that allows us to have a more accurate, timely reflection on what those actual prices are looking like in the marketplace and our farmers should be able to take advantage of those marketplace prices in their milk checks.”

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau delegates did not endorse supply management for milk but did agree to learn more about the University of Wisconsin’s Dairy Revitalization Plan.