In Todays Complex Marketing System Milk Pool Insures Equitable Price In o}ir model n system of mar keting. milk and other dany products, the fanner no longer meets the consumer face to face as he once did. They aic far apait, and today's farmer has no way of knowing how his milk will be used. He knows it may reach a dinner table m some distant city for drinking. But the farm er also knows that the amount of milk consumers want each day varies ,and that his parti cular milk may not be packaged lor drinking. Some or all of it may be left on band at the milk plant after that day’s bottling milk orders are filled. This left-over milk is likely to go to a near-by pro cessing plant to be used in mak ing ice cream, cheese, or butter. The- farmer has no control over how his milk will be used once it leaves his farm. In fact, milk from various farms is in termingled after purchase' by the handler, and loses its iden tity with the individual farmer, i Yet, there is a difference in the price milk will bring in the market, keyed to its ultimate use. Milk distributed for fluid use commands a higher price in the market than milk going into manufactured dairy pro ducts. ‘ A “milk pool” ensures that all farmers are paid equitably for their milk delivered to a market, or sold to an individual handler. This “pool” refers to the value of the milk rather than to the milk itself. It is money, not milk that is pooled, to prorate the value of the milk among participating dairy farmers. MEET THE LANDHANDLER Nissley Farm Service Grumetli Form Service L. H. Brubaker Washington Boro, Pa. Quarryville. Pa. Lititz, Pa. The essence of a maikctwulc pooling plan is payment of a unifoirn "blend”, or avciage price to all dairy farmcis do hveiing to all dealcis in the market, no matter how the milk is used by the particular deal er A pool can also apply just to milk handled by each dealer in dividually. In either case, the pool oper ates in conjunction with a milk use classification and pricing system. Various kinds of pooling ar rangements have been used for many years. They were first used in the 1920’s by dairy farmer cooperatives, to esta blish and maintain uniform, marketwide values for milk based on various uses. Later, cooperatives sought and got the help of government Pools have been an integral part of federal milk marketing orders ever since they were authorized by Congress some 30 years ago. The federal milk marketing orders administered by the Consumer and Marketing Ser vice of the U S. Department of Agriculture set minimum prices which are the least that milk dealers can pay dairy farmers for their milk There are usually two gen eral milk use designations Class I for all milk used for bottling (fluid) purposes, and Class II for all milk used for manufactured dairy products such as ice cream, butter, and cheese. This is where the milk pool comes into play. It brings farm ers the price benefits of the overall milk usage by all hand- In this USDA ailiclc, John R Hanson, deputy director of the USDA dairy division, explains how the milk pool woiks and how the blend price or milk price to the farmer is obtained. lers in the entire market, or by one handler only, depending on the type of pool plan. Here’s how this works Suppose that three dairy farmers each deliver 100 pounds of milk to a dealer do ing business in a Federal milk order market. The dealer sells Alternate AM-PMMilk Test Results Reported Favorable Location records and produc tion aveiages of herds enrolled in the alternate AM-PM milk testing plan compare favorably with herds enrolled in offical Dairy Herd Improvement test ing, an Extension daily special ist at The Pennsylvania State Univeisity reported recently at the American Dairy Science Association annual meeting in Gainesville, Fla Herbert C Gilmore, official in charge of the Pennsylvania DHIA program, who presented a paper on factors affecting in dividual cow weights, pointed out that under the alternate AM PM plan, only one milking of each test period is supervised— Lancaster Farming. Saturday. August 15,1970 200 pounds of the milk for fluid oi bottling use, for which the Class I price is $6 23 a bundled pounds He uses the other 100 pounds for manufacturing (Class II) for which the per hundred-weight order price is $467. The handler then owes $l2 46 for 200 pounds at $6 23 a hun dredweight, and $4 67 for 100 pounds at the Class II price The pool, or total owed by the handler is $17.13. Since all three farmers de livered the same amount of milk, they share it equally, each getting $5.71. In a real milk order pool, the AM one month, PM the next morning than in the evening, month. This reduces the testing Gilmoie added. cost and is popular because the . , regular milking routine is dis- to . ad]USt a , sin f« lupted for only one milking ml ! k f h" u h nequ ? ■frp, mg intervals have been develop- The amount of milk produced °, th p - t -rnfMw at a single milking is influenced ed ’ n pr ® te f or by the time since the previous said ‘ use of t these facto « milking,” the dairy specialist va “ r f uce var ‘ atl ° n in mi * said “The single milk weight is P lodu6tl « n records from month doubled for the daily total. This to month ; ” ake . tkeae r , ecopds daily total determines the cal- more useful for daily herd man culation of production for each agement, and give added rehabil monthly test period as well as 11 - v to the AM ' PM P lan the cow’s lactation record and Pennsylvania was the first yearly average for the herd.” state to offer dairymen the alter- There is more month to month nate monthly plan as an optional variation in the daily test day method of testing along with milk weights for those AM-PM Dairy Herd Improvement Regis herds that milk later in the tiy, owner sampler, and DHI. ENTY DIESEL uniform blend puce is announc ed foi milk with 3 5 pei cent butterfat The unifoim price to the farmers is then adjusted for milk of varying butterfat, and also for milk shipping costs from production to consump tion areas. The road to market is a long one for today’s milk. And milk goes into a host of different uses. 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