National Farmers Recommends Voting In Favor of FMMO Recommendations
By Brad Rach
Your holiday mail had something unusual this year–a letter from the Federal Milk Marketing Order Administrator. Don’t throw it away! It’s your ballot for voting on changes to the FMMO system.
As you probably know, USDA has held hearings, read comments, and involved as many organizations as they could in coming up with updates and changes to the FMMO rules and regulations. Now dairy farmers must vote those changes up or down.
Many cooperatives use so-called “bloc voting” instead of letting each member cast their own vote. We don’t do things that way here at NFO. We think that you know your farm better than anyone. You should make the call on something that could have a big effect on your milk check for years to come. Instead of voting for you, here is some advice from our staff to get your thinking off on the right track.
One of the most important things to consider is this: If you vote NO on a FMMO proposal, the rules don’t go back to the way they were before the hearing process started. Instead, USDA policy calls for the entire Marketing Order to be cancelled altogether. We think this is too extreme and have done our best to get USDA to drop this rule, but USDA has stuck to its guns.
For many of you, voting NO probably won’t be something you want to do anyway. If your milk is marketed in Federal Order 1, 5, 6, 7, 32, or 33, a YES vote should get you both higher pay prices and more streamlined regulations. Without going too deep into the regulatory weeds, let’s just say that markets with more fluid milk do well under the proposed changes.
If your milk is marketed in Order 30, 51, or 126, however, you have more to think about. Because these orders are heavy with butter, powder and cheese rather than fluid milk, the numbers don’t look so good for them.
The short version of a long story here is that the new proposal increases the “make allowance” that processors of manufactured products use to cover their costs. With so much milk going into manufacturing markets, this increase takes a bigger bite out of farm pay prices.
It’s tempting to vote NO if you are in one of the markets that take a hit from the new regulations. We can’t say we blame you. If you do vote NO, however, there won’t be a FMMO at all to help us sell your milk in an orderly, well-regulated system. For that reason, we think the benefits of voting YES outweigh the costs.
When you vote on this FMMO reform, you are voting as a member of one of the nation’s largest dairy cooperatives. We have a lot to say and enough membership muscle to back up what we say. Let us know if you need help making the best decision possible for your farm and for your family.
