USDA's recommended decision on Federal Milk Marketing Orders
Washington Ag Today October 27, 2009 The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently issued a recommended decision to adopt amendments to the producer-handler definition in all Federal milk marketing orders. The decision recommends that the producer-handler definitions of all marketing orders be amended to limit exemption from pooling and pricing provisions of the orders to those producer-handlers with total route disposition of fluid milk products of 3 million pounds or less per month. The National Milk Producers Federation hailed USDA’s recommendation saying its long-term objective of limiting the pricing advantage enjoyed by the largest farms that bottle their own milk is about to be realized. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service spokesperson Becky Unkenholz says provisions similar to this recommendation were adopted in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona Milk Marketing Orders in 2006. Unkenholz: “The main difference is that those provisions were within those two orders only.” Unkenholz explains how applying the three million pound limit in all Federal Milk Marketing Orders might affect the northwest. Unkenholz: “Say a producer-handler had dispositions of 2.9 in the Pacific Northwest and 2.9 in another order. He or she would be over that three million limit and would be subject to the pooling and pricing provisions.” There is a sixty-day public comment period. USDA would then write a final rule which would probably be out in mid-February of 2010 and then producers in all orders will vote on it. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
