taster Farming, Saturday, February 22, 1997
AlB-L«i
mci
Ag Secretary Seeks Comments On National Cheese Exchange
(Continued from Page A 1)
support for a milk strike during a
series of meetings held in southern
New York state and across the
northern tier of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Milk Produc
ers Association is a 2-year-old
organization founded by its presi
dent Marshall Wilson, an Elk
County dairy farmer who tills 200
acres and milk 45 cows. He mark
ets milk through Milk Marketing
Inc.
According to Wilson, PMPA
has 200 members and they have
been wprking in cooperation with
Tewksbury and Pro Ag in calling
for a national strike.
He said that similar organiza
tions in seven other states have
joined PMPA in forming the
United States Milk Producers
Council, an independent organiza
tion comprised of the presidents
and vice presidents of the different
state affiliates.
In northeastern Pennsylva
nia, the PMPA and Pro Ag
have had a number of opinion
articles published recently in
farm publications that have
urged dairy farm families to
Pond together in a common
jffort to secure a price for milk
.hat reflects cost of
production.
According to Wilson, his
urgamzalion’s latest projec
jon of cost of production for a
aundredweight of milk is
517.77.
Withholding milk, as a last
■esort, is the main power upon
which the groups are basing
their strategy to achieve that
cost of production.
No Strike
For Now
However, according to a
news release this week from
Pro Ag, and according to Wil
son, the strike has been post
poned for at least three weeks,
as a result of a Feb. 10 meeting
at the Keystone College in
Scranton between dairy pro
ducers, the dairy support
industry of northeastern Pen
nsylvania, and U.S. Sens.
Arlcn Specter, Rick Santor
um, and U.S. Ag Secretary
Glickman
Cost Of
Production
Other dairy and farmer
groups, such as the National
Farmers Organization and the
National Farmers Union, have
also promoted national milk
pricing policies that are based
on the cost of production.
However, the actual cost of
dairy production varies
greatly.
All things being equal there
are economies of size that fac
tor against small family farms.
Beyond that, personal
skills, knowledge, abilities,
proximity to processors, road
conditions, local competition,
and farm management strate
gies vary greatly and present
perhaps the greatest obstacle
to pricing milk according to
the cost of production.
Determining whose farm
ing style should set an industry
standard for cost of production
seems to be the greatest barrier
to achieving such a standard
price.
While such a standard does not
seem inconceivable to determine
(though complicated), even if
some new formula would be
created to standardize the cost of
production, it would seem impos
sible to achieve complete agree
ment among dairy producers.
In general, the number of dairy
farms has been continuing to
decline year after year while the
amount of milk produced has
increased. This could indicate that
production lost through the exit of
dairy farms is not rally being
picked up by expanding opera
tions, but that those expansions are
increasing the total amount of
milk, and thus lowering the market
value of milk.
It also indicates, as statistics
bear out, that dairy production is
coming more and more from the
larger operations.
That continuing trend can be
expected to also mean that the
divide between cost efficiencies of
the different dairy operations is
gradually widening, puting more
pressure on the smaller farms com
peting in the same market.
Some smaller farms have been
switching production and market
ing strategies, such as grazing to
lower operational cash flow and
debt requirements, or attempting
to gamer a premium price by supp
lying specialty markets, such as
the “organic” market
However, Pro Ag and the Pen
nsylvania Milk Producers Associ
ation have stated that their demand
of a price received that reflects
their members’ cost of production
must be met or a strike will occur.
According to Andy Wallace,
Sen. Specter’s northeast Pennsyl
vania regional administrator (in
the Scranton office), and a staff
employee for 14 years, the Feb. 10
meeting was put together within a
week, and resulted from numerous
farmer meetings that have been
occuring during the past several
months.
“It was the largest meeting of
dairy farmers ever in Pennsylvani
a,” he said. “There were not only
dairy farmers, there were feed
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30
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Meeting In
Scranton
It's time for you to make a
herbicide choice. That means
choosing the herbicide that
gives you superior
control of more
weeds all season
long. Of course,
you can't be 100%
sure that the tough
weeds you had this year will be
your only tough weeds next year.
That's why it pays to have
science on your side when
growers, veterinarians, bankers.
The (misconception) is that (the
low milk price and the loss of dairy
farms) affects just the farmer, but
it’s affecting the entire economy,
feed suppliers, etc., the support
industry to the consumer.”
According to Sen. Specter’s
staff in Scranton, about 750
attended the Feb. 10 meeting.
Wilson said if he would have
had more notice he could have
been able to inform more of his
members.
Wallace said that staff members
have been attending some of the
farmer meetings. He said that the
meetings shouldn’t be considered
Pro Ag meetings or PMPA meet
ings, but instead they should be
considered farmer meetings.
He said his office has been made
aware of the problem and that the
entire Pennsylvania delegation
including Representatives such as
10th District Rep. Joseph McDade
whose district includes
Scranton has been concerned
and working to bring some relief.
At the request of Sen. Specter
and Sen. Santomm, U.S. Secretary
- ° EHE •>™ f Check the labels for
MdlQWdll ’ yourself. Harness Xtra
advantage w ith the Max Avail
of Agriculture Glickman also
attended the meeting.
The meeting was held on a Mon
day morning, the same day as the
annual meeting and Cornucopia
event of the Pennsylvania State
Council of Farm Organizations in
the Harrisburg Capitol.
Planned for months ahead of
time, the Cornucopia provides
farm organization and industry
representatives an opportunity to
discuss with state Legislators the
current conditions of their respec
tive industries) and issues affect
ing them.
The state Legislature is in the
beginning stages of a new legisla
tive session and developing new
proposals.
But according to many reports
from different sources, at the meet
ing in Scranton, local farmers,
dairy industry support business
representatives, and some local
representatives of the state’s major
agricultural organizations and
others testified about the injury to
Pennsylvania’s northeast dairy
producers, and the potential devas
(Turn to Page Al 9)
choosing a herbicide. And with the
Max Avail™ Advantage of Harness® Xtra
__________ herbicide, you do.
Advantage controls 15 percent
more weeds than Bicep® ll—including
tough grasses and broadleaf weeds.
The Max Avail Advantage of Harness
Xtra also stops the triazine-resistant
weeds Extrazine* and Bicep II leave
ivt ingredients m Hirneu and Dud II tßased upon 1996 product labi
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