National Farmers’ Bylsma Testifies at Federal Milk Marketing Hearings

National Farmers’ Bylsma Testifies at Federal Milk Marketing Hearings

National Federal Milk Marketing Order Pricing Formula Hearings were convened multiple times in 2023. National Farmers Director of Milk Sales, Dick Bylsma cross examined Mr. Eric Metzger, General Manager of National All-Jersey Inc. on the third day of the Federal Order hearings August 25.

Bylsma focused on the subject of depooling milk. He questioned Metzger about the significant volume of milk that was depooled in 2021 and 2022, and whether it caused disruption in the marketplace. Metzger agreed that was indeed the case.

Bylsma noted that one of the functions of the federal order system is to produce orderly marketing, yet USDA and others believe depooling should remain a regional issue, and therefore not addressed in the order hearings.

Bylsma then theoretically compared two cheese factories making the exact same product in different federal order regions, where one region makes it difficult to depool milk, and the other region can easily depool milk.

Bylsma asked Metzger during times of rapid cheese price increases whether or not the easily depooled regional factory has an advantage. Metzger admitted it could be true that one region has an advantage over another in that scenario, in one particular month of comparison.

Bylsma inquired whether Metzger believed there should be uniformity in regions being able to depool, and Metzger said the issue deserves a thorough examination and that it would be possible to establish a more uniform pooling policy.

Wrapping up his comments, Bylsma pointed out that two other expert witnesses also mentioned depooling causes marketplace disruption.