Eastern Coop Says New Rule to Hasten Necessity of Bulk Tank USDA Discourages Can An amendment to the New York-New Jersey Federal milk marketing order, effective No vember 1, 1970, will accelerate the closing of can milk receiv ing facilities and hasten the demise of the can method of shipping milk from farm to market in the largest fluid milk market in the nation. This is the conclusion reach ed by Joseph C. Mathis Jr, Economist for Eastern Milk Producers Cooperative Associa tion, Inc., Syracuse, New York. The Federal Order esta blishes the minimum prices milk dealers in most of New York and northern New Jersey must pay for milk received from dairy farmers Eastern iHave you . ■ with a Case area, there loading or excavating woi. - pay is , excellent Some farmers are making more money on the , side than with their farming operations The New CKs are so easy to operate. Anyone can become a proficient opera tor. Get a heavy-duty farm loader plus a profitable “part 1 time” job, all in one machine. We have the most liberal , financing opportunities available right now. A. L. HERR & BRO. Milk Producers and other dairy farmer cooperatives in the New York-New Jersey market had proposed an amendment to the Order designed to properlv align the minimum prices fL ed for milk used in manufac tured dairy products (i.e, but ter, cheese and milk powder) in this market with those esta blished by Federal orders for other markets in the northeast. Manufacturers of such pro ducts in New York were being placed at a competitive disad vantage with their counterparts in adjacent markets. The dis position of reserve milk sup plies was becoming increasing ly more difficult and threaten ed to disrupt the orderly mai FARMERS- Earn extra money with a Case keting of milk throughout the market. Conti-ary to the request of ihe cooperatives, and the advice of dairy marketing specialist, the U S Department of Agricul ture chose to adopt an entirely d fferent means of “correcting” Lie marketing problem Mathis explained. The Department has amend ed the order to provide for a 10-cent transportation credit to milk handlers for each hundred pounds of farm bulk tank milk they utilize for Class II (manu facturing) purposes. In deter mining the credit to which ho is entitled, a handler must as sign his bulk unit pool milk to Class II in the same proportion that his total pool milk in all of his plants and bulk units is classified as Class II milk. This procedure is intended to prevent a handler from arbi trarily allocating his Class II milk to bulk receipts and his can receipts to Class I uses. Mathis explained that the ef fect of this procedure, how ever, is to reduce the handler’s credit if he receives milk in cans from producers. The only way a handler can receive the full 10-cent credit on his bulk Class II milk is to receive only bulk milk Thus, handlers hav ing Class II milk in one or more of the plants in their system now will have an additional economic incentive to accept only bulk tank milk from pro ducers Although the conversion from can to bulk delivery in this giant milkshed began later -and has progressed slower than in other markets in the north east, it has been an orderly transition Relatively few dairy farmeis have been forced to convert to bulk storage and de livery before they were econo mically capable of doing so In alluding to this however, the Department of Agriculture stated “The slow conversion to bulk tank handling in the New York-New Jersey Market un questionably has hepn a signifi cant impediment to maximizing operating efficiency in Class II Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 28,1970 Milk in Order 6 milk operations It seems clear can milk already are becoming that the final stage of the tran- fewer and farther apart. Cer sition to bulk tank handling tainly their numbers will di must be expedited if Order 2 mimsh still further in the next handlers are to hold down their few months, particularly with operating costs ” the added incentive created by Mathis noted that in Septem- Government’s amendment her of this year 9,205 dairy farmers shipped can milk to action. . plants regulated under Order 2 Can milk will have to be They comprised about one-third shipped longer distances to re of the producers shipping to the maming can receiving plants at New York-New Jersey market, higher cost to dairy farmers and accounted for about one- While some pundits will wel fifth of the milk delivered to come the extinction of the can market that month. delivery system and eulogize its There is no way of forecast- passing, the remaining 9,205 ing how rapidly outlets will dairy farmers shipping in cans close to these remaining can to the New York-New Jersey milk shippers, Mathis said, market may think otherwise, Plants with facilities to receive Mathis said Help Us Serve You Is your farm organization’s meetings making our farm calendar? If they’re not and you think they should, let us know. As a public service to farmers and the farm communi ty, we try to get as many meetings as we can on the calendar. But we miss some. Remind us by calling 394-3047 or 626-2191 or by writing to Lancaster Farming, 22 E. Main St., Lititz Pa. 17543. You can help us serve you better. 27
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