By LEE MIELKE
Mielke Market Weekly 

U.S. dairy producers and their cooperative leaders met last week in Grapevine, Texas, for the joint annual meeting of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board and the United Dairy Industry Assoc.

With a major reform of the federal dairy safety net now complete, NMPF leadership pledged to step up efforts on other key issues, including the fight for immigration reform and opening more foreign markets to U.S. dairy products.

Speaking at the two-day meeting, Board Chairman Randy Mooney and President and CEO Jim Mulhern stressed the need to address environmental issues and concerns over the treatment of animals on dairy farms.

"The new Margin Protection Program (MPP) is going to be more flexible, more fair, and more functional than the old MILC program," said Mooney, a dairy farmer from Rogersville, Mo.

"I want, most of all, to remind farmers to take action and enroll their operation in the Margin Protection Program," added Mulhern, who took over as NMPF president 10 months ago. "Even if you only want the barebones catastrophic coverage for next year, it will only cost you $100."

Guest speaker USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told attendees that the USDA is extending by one week the deadline for farmers to enroll in the MPP. The previous deadline, Nov. 28, will be moved back to Friday, Dec. 5, to ensure that dairy producers have time after the Thanksgiving weekend to sign up. NMPF had asked USDA to consider an extension, because Nov. 28 is "Black Friday." Mooney and Mulhern also said NMPF would continue working with USDA to "smooth the implementation of the MPP."

On immigration, Mulhern said congressional inaction this year would not keep NMPF from pressing the fight for reform in 2015.

"Our industry and our members must continue to beat the drum in Washington, and, more importantly, in states and congressional districts across the nation, that immigration reform must be dealt with, and finally resolved, in the coming year," he said.

Regardless of who controls Congress after the election, the two leaders said NMPF would continue pushing for reform because it is crucial for dairy farmers. "This issue must be resolved," Mulhern said.

On exports, Mooney and Mulhern said the U.S. dairy industry is intent on being a major player in world markets from here on out.

"World trade in dairy is today’s reality and tomorrow’s opportunity," Mooney said.

Mulhern said dairy farmers have a lot riding on trade negotiations now under way involving both Europe and Asia. "Japan is a huge potential opportunity," he said.

We could export a lot more dairy products if the U.S. government can achieve a breakthrough in negotiations and bring back a trade agreement providing meaningful increased market access there."

He added that "entrenched domestic dairy interests" in Japan and Europe don’t want more competition from the U.S. "The European defense strategy includes an outrageous focus on bastardizing the concept (of) Geographic Indicators in an attempt to claw back, for their own protectionist use, the names of many common foods. These foods include many cheeses that we’ve been making for decades."

Both leaders praised the role of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT).

"The rise in exports in the past decade is due to a number of factors, but a big one is that we have, in our Cooperatives Working Together program, a very effective tool to help seal the deal in markets where we are competing with products from other countries," Mooney said. He reported that CWT helped find markets for 86 million pounds of cheese, 51 million pounds of butter and 37 million pounds of whole milk powder in 43 counties.

Speaking of CWT, 13 requests for export assistance were granted this week to sell 5.735 million pounds of Cheddar cheese, 1,984 million pounds of butter (82% milkfat) and 46,297 pounds of whole milk powder to customers in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The product will be delivered through April 2015.

Turning to environmental issues, Mulhern said it is important for the dairy industry "to turn them from a liability to an opportunity." As examples of this, Mulhern and Mooney cited NMPF’s work with the White House and federal agencies to encourage methane gas generation from dairy farm waste and efforts to recover and market valuable nutrients from livestock manure.

Finally, concerning animal care, Mooney said it’s frustrating to hear "a small but vocal minority of critics attack dairy farmers and paint a twisted and false image of the care we provide our animals."

Mulhern noted that conscientious animal care is not just morally and ethically right but also good business, since healthy cows produce more milk. "It’s also clear in this age of social media and the internet that we’re past the point where we can ask people just to take our word that we are providing proper care."