NFO Proposes Milk Pricing Plan

Editor:

The National Milk Producers Federation is leading an effort to find a better way to price the milk America’s dairy farmers produce. On behalf of National Farmers Organization, I had the privilege of presenting a proposal for what we call the Cooperative Marketing Initiative (CMI) at a Task Force meeting NMPF held in Chicago.

There were many thoughtful proposals presented, but Cooperative Marketing Initiative was different in one important way: it is led by farmers, not by the government.

I appreciate that USDA has come up with some help for dairy farmers for the next few months. Still, I favor farmer-led, private programs such as CWT. The government cannot be expected to work only on behalf of dairy farmers for long periods of time. Furthermore, America’s dairy farmers are perfectly capable of regulating their own industry. Why involve the government when you don’t have to?

Here’s a quick look at the farmer-led plan that will get us back on track to long-term prosperity:

First, a team of analysts at NMPF will determine national production levels that are consistent with national usage and with reasonable prices for milk at the farm level.

Second, a base production level will be assigned to all participating cooperatives. The cooperatives will, in turn, set base production levels for each member farmer.

Third, a fair target price for farm-level milk will be set. Farmers will be paid the target price for all milk marketed within their base assignment. They will be paid less for milk marketed in excess of the base.

As time goes on and circumstances change, the base for all participants may have to change to guarantee fair prices. But our plan puts a structure in place to handle that. There is more to the plan, but this is the basic idea. You can read more about it at www.nfo.org.

— Bradley L. Rach
National Dairy Director
National Farmers Organization