Al6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 20,1982
Northern Tier producers hear component pricing argument
BY JANE BRESEE
Staff Correspondent
NORTH TOWANDA, - The
Bradford County Jersey Cattle
Club hosted dairy producers from
the Holstein and Guernsey Cattle
dubs to hear a possible solution to
the national milk surplus problem
given by Guy M. Crews,
representative from National All-
Jersey, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio.
Crews, a veteran of marketing
Jersey milk for many years, ad
vocated that the surplus could be
alleviated two ways: byraisingthe
minimum standards of fluid milk
as California did by raising the
butterfat from 3.2 percent and
sollds-not-fat content from 8.35
percent to 8.7 percent and by
unposing end product pricing on
Class II and Class HI milk.
End product pricing means that
milk would be priced on its ability
to yield butter, powder, cheese,
etc. Milk containing higher fat and
higher solids-not-fat content
produces more cheese. Crews said,
citing a study by Rodney Brown of
the University of Utah. End
product pricing would raise the
value of this milk sl*2 dollars a
hundred weight, he estimated.
Crews claimed that if this plan
were enforced nationally, it would
eliminate half the overproduction.
The price incentive for higher
fat, higher solids-not-fat milk
would reward those who produced
it and lower the incentive to
produce merely for volume, he
said. , . -
Crews stated he had taken his
idea to most of the major milk
cooperatives. “The real important
marketing people, the co-op
leaders, believe in this,” he said,
“but are afraid what producers’
votes might do to them.”
Considering the country’s mood
against surplus, Crews admitted
he is worried that if the National
Milk Producer Federation two-tier
plan is put before Congress, it
“might fly”, but he does not favor
the National Milk plan because the
world market cannot s'and the
surplus being dumped on K.
End product pncmg has been
successfully tried in several
cheese plants in the Minnesota-
Wisconsin area. Crews said.
Using the success m the record
high milk consumption per capita
m California as an example time
and again, Crews maintained that
if the cooperatives and producers
joined forces and pushed this plan,
it could be adopted during the
Reagan administration by
changing regulations, not Federal
Orders. The Department of
Agriculture officials say they will
not enforce milk production
controls, Crews reported, so the
surplus problem must be attacked
another way.
Crews concluded his talk by
asking the dairy producers to urge
then: cooperative leaders and
dealers to adopt the plan he
presented.
Tom Noble, president of the
Bradford County Jersey Cattle
Club, welcomed the 60 dairy
producers from three counties.
Officials present were Laverne
McCarty, Sullivan County director
of Eastern Milk Producers’
Cooperative; Richard Kingsley,
president of the Bradford Holstein
Club; Ben Wilcox, president of the
Bradford County Guernsey Club;
Dave Norman of Tioga County
and Eugene Harris of Bradford
County, both state directors in the
Jersey Cattle Association; Carl
Gore, president of the Bradford-
GUTTER CHAIN
Bradford County Jersey Cattle Club director William
Swingle, left, of Canton poses with Guy M. Crews of the
National All-Jersey, Inc. Crews spoke to assembly dairy
producers on component pricing as a possible solution to
surplus.
Sullivan County Farmers’
Association; and Orville Yoder
I;3
WE'RE GROWING BETTE*
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*
and Jake Guffey, Bradford County
Extension agents.
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