The Milk
Check
»
TOM JUHCHAK
County Agent
Reprieve
The on pgain, off again 50 cent
assessment is now off again for the
fourth time (or is it the eighth?)
following a temporary restraining
order by federal judge Matthew
Perry on May 5 in South Carolina.
The ruling put the assessment on
“hold” for 20 days to May 25 when
the judge says “the parties can
anticipate a full opinion”. It seems
the judge is convinced he made the
right ruling the last time on
" January 11 when he stopped the
assessment because of violations
of the Administration Procedures
Act which the Secretary of
Agriculture corrected. However,
he still feels that “any remedy
comes under the heading of ad
ministrative law rather than
constitutional law”.
Specifically the injunction
prevents the Secretary and the
CCC from collecting any of the
assessments and if they have
collected any it should be
“returned forthwith”. That takes
care of the Secretary but it doesn’t
say anything about handlers
particularly for milk received
from producers between April 16
and May 5 when the assessment
was “on”. Anyway, I doubt that
there are any producers or han
dlers losing sleep over it and with
the track record that this con
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troversy has had in the courts
nobody believes anything any
more. However, you do have to
credit the farm organizations and
co-ops who have worked to stop the
assesment. They have done that, at
least so far. But what started out
as a nice, clean surgical cut to get
rid of the assessment legally has
turned into something of a bloody
mess and the longer it’s delayed
the more likely it will be ended or
given legislative legitimacy by
Congress.
Last month for the second time
this spring, producer receipts to
Order 2 handlers went over a
billion pounds a month, making it
the highest for April in 16 years. On
a daily basis this was a million
pounds a day more than in March
and with no increase in Class I
sales your utilization dropped to
36.7 making a record low for April
in Order 2. The Class II price
dropped six cents from March with
four cents of that coming from a
seasonal adjustment in the Order
and two cents from a lower Min
nesota-Wisconsin price. The Class
I price also dropped three cents as
the result of a lower M-W from
January to February.
Putting all these together - lower
Class prices and a lower Class I
utilization - they cost you six cents
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on your blend price for April
compared to March. The biggest
cut once again was a 10 cent In
crease in your Louisville Plan
payment from 20 cents to 30 cents a
hundred. The total of 16 cents
dropped the Uniform Price from
$13.01 in march to $12.85 in April.
This is just three cents more than
last ’’ear but 15 cents less than
April 1981 which was the record
high for the month in Order 2.
Spring Flush
The seasonal flood of milk from
farms to manufacturing plants has
already started with some Federal
Order changes made several
months ago in anticipation of the
expected deluge. There’s no
question that increases in
manufacturing plant capacity by
both cooperatives and proprietary
handlers here in the northeast is a
blessing now but other changes
were made - mainly by
cooperatives - that you should be
aware of. In Order 4 handlers got a
transportation credit of 3.6 cents
for Class II milk that had to be
hauled more than 200 miles to non
pool plants for processing. Order
36 suspended its Louisville plan
payments by producers and got a
drop of 40 cents a hundred in the
price of milk going into butter,
powder and cheese. The changes
are not without some cost to the
producer but they’re a lot cheaper
than some of the costs paid in the
past to find a home for “homeless”
milk.
On The Senate Side
What has been leaked as a
compromise between the Ad
ministration and the Senate
Agriculture Committee would keep
the 50 cent assessment and make it
mandatory to September 1984 to
eliminiate the court challenges.
The “plan” would also drop the
support price 50 cents starting
October 1983 along with a one year
paid diversion. After that the
support price would be dropped 50
cents a year until, government
purchases fall below five billion
pounds of milk equivalent. Here
again we see parts of different
pieces of legislation that were
introduced earlier and com
promised into a proposal just as we
found in the House two weeks ago.
All it does, however, is give us
more clues on what they’re
thinking in Congress without any
solid choices being made before
the water is tested. Sort of trial
balloons that we’re getting to test
the reaction of the industry. The
encouraging thing about all this is
that the Senate, House and the
Administration appear to be doing
their compromising together with
the hope of bringing very similar
bills to a floor vote when the time is
right. This in contrast to last year
when each came out with very
different bills that finally produced
the camel that we have today when
the conference committee got
through working them over.
Back At The House
Meanwhile, back at the House
Agriculture Committee where
things are a little further along
than in the Senate, they have a new
bill called the “Dairy Production
Act of 1983” and designated HR
Chestnuts heifer tops Guernsey Sale
LANCASTER - The 328th
Special Guernsey Sale brought in
buyers from several states along
the eastern seaboard, but the top
selling heifer went to Lancaster
County’s own Scott and Elsie Wolff
of Quanyville. The sale was held
May 19 at the Guernsey Sale Barn.
The Wolff’s placed the top bid of
$l5OO to purchase Chestnuts
Premier Bettie. Bettie is a two
year old heifer bred in September
to Yellow Creek M Gaither. Bettie
was consigned by John Carroll of
Cordova, Md.
A complete dispersal of the
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FARM A FAMILY CENTER
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 28,1983—C3
2822. This is the work of the dairy
subcommittee that combined parts
of the National Milk Producers’s
Dairy Compliance Program with a
few wrinkles added from the Dairy
Surplus Reduction Act of the so
called Wisconsin coalition. The
major difference between the
Senate and the House proposals is
that the Senate version uses the 50
cent assessment and the 30 cent
drop in the support price to finance
the diversion payment. In other
words, everyone pays but only
those who reduce production get
anything back.
In the House proposal the
diversion payments for those who
reduce production are paid for out
of penalties (up to $12.00 a hun
dred) on surplus milk of producers
who have increased production.
The support price stays where it is
now at $13.10 without any deduc
tions. It also puts limits on what is
considered surplus milk so that no
matter how high your production
goes your blend price won’t be
more than a dollar less than it is
now. Both' proposals include
producer contributions for
promoting milk and dairy product
comsumption.
Hassell Kicker and Sons herd was
held in conjunction with the
Special Sale. A total of 60 Guern
seys and 11 Holsteins were sold.
Sale receipts for the 60 head of
Guernseys totaled $45,175, with a
sale average of $752.
The sale total of the 11 Holsteins
was $10,500, with a sale average of
$954.
Top selling Holstein, Performer
Apollo Candi, sold for $1725 to
Rabbit Ridge Farms of Lititz.
Candi, a heifer bred to the Ace bull,
was consigned by Ruth and Russell
Ricker.
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