The American Farm Bureau is weighing in on milk prices. The group told Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack that current requests to increase make allowances fall short of fairly supporting dairy farmers. AFBF says the requests are for voluntary data to set these allowances, but President Zippy Duvall argues the reporting should be mandatory.
“Dairy farmers continue to face market challenges as part of the high cost, high-risk age we live in,” President Duvall said. “Trust is critical to maintaining an efficient and resilient federal order system that promotes orderly marketing of milk to consumers across the country. The petitions we oppose here threaten to undercut trust between farmers who produce the milk and the processors who turn it into the dairy products we all know and love.”
USDA estimates producers lose an average of $6.72 per hundredweight of milk produced. The loss for dairy farms with less than 50 cows is even greater at $21.58 per hundredweight.
