A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 8, 1991 ,
PDPP Hires Summer Intern
her internship with the PDPP and held , from Jul y 14 10 Jul y 20 at
learns more about Pennsylvania’s locations across the state,
dairy industry.” “I am excited to join the Pen-
Corbin will be charged with nsylvania Dairy Promotion Prog
coordinating the PDPP’s statewide ram’s efforts,” Corbin said. “I
ice cream promotion, “There’s wanted to experience promotion
Something About Pennsylvania activities at the state level after
Ice Cream .’’The promotion is to be serving as a dairy princess and
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) The Pennsylvania Dairy
Promotion Program has recently
hired a summer intern, Stephanie
Corbin, to coordinate the prog
ram’s summer ice cream
promotion.
Corbin, a former county dairy
New York,
KARL BERGER
Special Correspondent
FREDERICK, MD.
Even as basic milk prices con
tinue to stagnate at levels well
below the cost of production,
local dairy farmers have got
ten a boost from several recent
state actions supporting higher
prices.
State officials in both New
York and New Jersey moved
last month to provide higher
prices through the exercise of
existing, if little used, regulat
ory authority.
The actions have given a
boost to dairy farmers
throughout the Middle Atlan
tic region, according to local
cooperative officials, by sta
bilizing the imposition of so
called over-order premiums
throughout the region.
In New Jersey, lobbying
efforts by farmers and farm
groups for state action resulted
in an order signed May 31 by
Gov. James Florio authorizing
a statewide premium on Class
I milk to begin June 1. Wood
son Moffett Jr., director of the
Division of Dairy Industry in
the New Jersey Department of
Agriculture, proposed the
$1.05 per hundredweight pre
mium for a period of one year.
In New York, the state
legislature passed a law May 2
to give state Commissioner of
Agriculture and Markets
Richard McGuire the ability to
set prices immediately under
existing regulatory authority.
McGuire subsequently estab
lished $13.85 as a statewide
minimum Class I price for
June, as well as minimum
prices for Class II and Class 111
milk.
The New York premium is
$1.39 higher than the average
Class I price in June for Feder
al Order 2, which regulates the
New York City-northern New
Jersey milk market. The Class
II and Class 111 minimum price
also is higher than expected
federal order prices for those
classes.
McGuire must still rule for
mally on the official request
for state-regulated prices - the
subject of 12 days of testi
mony in April but his
emergency response suggests
he will rule for at least a conti
nuation of the current pre
mium, according to observers
there.
"We do think he's going to
rule favorably," said Gregg
McAllister, a spokesman for
the Regional Cooperative
Marketing Agency. RCMA
was instrumental in the lobby
ing effort that led to the New
York action. The over-order
bargaining agency formed a
subsidiary, the Regional
Cooperative Bargaining
Agency, expressly for the pur-
princess, started with the program
on May 21.
“We are anxious to have Stepha
nie join our staff,” said Brian Ross,
PDPP program manager. “Her
skills in communications and
promotion will be a great asset to
the program. We hope she enjoys
New Jersey Actions Boost Over-Order Premium Effort
pose of requesting emergency
action on behalf of more than
35 percent of New York’s pro
ducers, as required by the new
law, McAllister said.
New York's action already
has prompted similar
responses throughout New
England, McAllister noted. In
the weeks since the state's
action was announced, offi
cials in New Hampshire, Mas
sachusetts, Maine and Ver-
mont also have implemented
or boosted statewide mini
mum prices. The emergence
of all these state- regulated
prices has achieved a more
uniform and more widely
applicable over-order pricing
system than RCMA managed
by itself during its heyday in
the late 1980 s.
Likewise, both the New
York and the New Jersey
actions have shored up the
existing over-order premiums
implemented through the Pen
nsylvania Milk Marketing
Board and the Middle Atlantic
Cooperative Milk Marketing
Agency in Pennsylvania and
the other parts of the Federal
Order 4 marketplace, accord
ing to Bob Yonkers, a Penn
State University dairy
economist.
Indeed, the $1.05 level set
in New Jersey also is the over-
county promoter.”
She is currently a senior at
Grove City College, majoring in
secondary education and commu
nications. Following graduation,
she said she hopes to work in publ
ic relations/communications or
teach high school English.
order price that dairy coopera
tives and farm groups, at a
hearing in May, asked the
PMMB to lock into place for
the year beginning July 1, said
board spokesman Tom Kugel.
The current PMMB premium,
set at $1.35, is due to expire
June 30. The three-member
board should rule on the
industry's request later this
month, according to Kugel.
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