Much of the “cream of the crop” of the dairy industry was in Reno, Nev., this week for the joint annual meeting of National Milk, the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, and United Dairy Industry Assoc.

The theme was “Creating A Path to Prosperity” and focused on the dairy industry’s future.

One important element of the future is the Cooperative Working Together (CWT) program. CWT CEO Jim Tillison reported Thursday that his committee met on Monday and decided that the emphasis for the rest of 2010 and in 2011 would be on export assistance rather than additional herd removals.

National Milk Dairy Economist Dr. Peter Vitaliano believes the export assistance can be as effective, if not more effective, than the herd retirement programs have been, according to Tillison, and dairy producers themselves have said they prefer selling more dairy products than removing milk production.

National Milk’s Board affirmed the decision, Tillison reported, so carryover funds will be used toward that end. The board authorized a 2-cent per cwt., assessment on CWT members (an 8-cent reduction from the current level) with the caveat that 75 percent of U.S. dairy producers participate in the CWT Program so an emphasis will be made on signing up new members.

Thursday was the first general session and started with a town hall type meeting addressing National Milk’s “Foundation for the Future” dairy policy proposal.

“People need to understand what all of the elements of the program are,” Tillison concluded, “And once they do that, they pretty much have gone on board saying that this is the new direction that the dairy industry should take.”

While the country seems deeply divided politically going into next Tuesday’s elections, “unity” and “consensus” was emphasized at this week’s meeting, according to Dairy Profit Weekly Editor Dave Natzke, in Friday’s broadcast.

It was the 14th joint annual meeting of the three organizations, he said, and possibly the most pivotal in its history. Presentations on dairy promotion activities and partnerships were made and National Milk chairman Randy Mooney and President and CEO Jerry Kozak called for unity and consensus amongst their dairy farmer delegates and others attending to unify behind what they hope is a fundamental change in U.S. dairy policy in the 2012 Farm Bill.
As we have reported in the past; the Foundation for the Future proposal would eliminate large components of current dairy policy, including the Dairy Price Support and Milk Income Loss Contract programs, replacing them with a Dairy Producer Margin Protection program to help producers protect against low milk prices and/or high feed costs through both base and supplemental insurance programs.

The proposal includes a Dairy Market Stabilization Program to balance supply and demand by reducing milk payments in surplus situations; and calls for reforms in the Federal milk marketing order program.

“Foundation for the Future” is top dairy policy proposal
“Foundation for the Future is one of several dairy policy proposals being offered as the result of the devastating economic situation dairy farmers have faced for the past two years,” Natzke said. “In urging consensus among dairy farmers, Mooney and Kozak stressed the plan, as a complete package, is a compromise that serves all dairy farmers equally, while probably just as important, is politically practical and passable, no matter which party comes into power on Nov. 2.”

Mooney and Kozak called on farmers to “rise above individual differences and the fear of change in order to move forward,” and they discussed other issues the Federation has been involved with this year such as the fight against the misbranding of imitation dairy products, such as soy “milk,” by petitioning the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 10 years ago to remind dairy imitators about labeling laws. Since then, the market for these imitation products has flourished, prompting NMPF to launch “They Don’t Got Milk,” a campaign encouraging people to write to FDA to enforce their own labeling standards.

NMPF also urged Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle to veto a bill expanding raw milk sales there.

Mooney emphasized that “NMPF has made it clear that loosening restrictions on the sales of raw milk is ultimately a public health threat.”

Checking the cupboards; September butter stocks totaled 129.8 million pounds, down 25.5 million pounds or 16 percent from August and 98.1 million pounds or 43 percent below September 2009, according to preliminary data in the Agriculture Department’s latest Cold Storage report. Revisions raised the August estimate nearly 3.5 million pounds.

The September American cheese inventory, at 635.6 million pounds, was unchanged from August, but 39.4 million pounds or 7 percent above a year ago. August revised estimates were raised nearly 8.9 million pounds.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Lee Mielke may write to him in care of this publication.