A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 13. 1997
PMMB Sets Emergency Hearing
(Conllnuad from Pago A 1)
On Wednesday at the Pennsyl
vania Department of Agriculture
Building in Harrisburg, during its
regular monthly meeting, the Pen
nsylvania Milk Marketing Board
(PMMB) agreed to hold an
emergency hearing regarding its
over-order premium and a possible
increase.
The hearing has been set for 9
a.m., Oct. 10, in Room B of the
Farm Show Complex in
Harrisburg.
The call for an emergency meet
ing of the over-order premium was
made in response to petitions from
state Secretary of Agriculture
Samuel Hayes Jr., the Pennsylva
nia Farm Bureau and the Pennsyl-
vania State Grange, according to
Tracy Jackson, spokesperson for
the PMMB.
The PMMB is authorized to institute mini
mum retail and wholesale prices on milk pro
duced, processed and sold in Pennsylvania and
for years has maintained a minimum and an over
order premium that is to be paid to producers.
Secretary Hayes led the call for the emergency
hearing, providing a cue for the other groups to
add their support.
In a letter to Frank DeGarcia of the Pennsylva
nia Milk Marketing Board, Grange Legisative
Director Brenda Shambaugh stated, “The
Grange believes a hearing is necessary due to the
severe weather conditions in Pennsylvania
throughout this growing season.
‘The drought has significantly hindered the
crop harvest, consequently increasing costs and
driving down profits for dairy producers. We are
also anticipating a sharp increase in feed costs
because of the drought.
“Coupling these facts with the decline in milk
prices over the past 12 months, we foresee a sig
nificant financial hardship for dairy producers,”
she stated.
In her letter, Shambaugh stated that the
Grange was seeking an increase in the over-order
premium. A letter from state Agriculture Secret
ary Samuel Hayes Jr. requested the emergency
hearing to consider whether the over-order pre
mium should be “modified,” rather than specifi
cally seeking an increase, though an increase can
be inferred.
A specific amount of increase in the premium
has not been mentioned.
The PFB letter was essentially a statement that
it wish to be considered as joining Secretary
Hayes in calling for the emergency hearing.
In a news release made at the beginning of the
week, state Secretary Hayes stated, “Pennsylva
nia’s dairy farmers are facing severe economic
distress due to declining milk prices and increas
ing production costs,” Hayes said. “This sum
mer’s drought has further exacerbated the
situation.”
According to PDA, milk prices for dairy far
mers have decreased by about 30 percent in less
than a year.
“We must do what we can to balance the needs '
of our dairy farmers with those of consumers. I
do not want Pennsylvania’s dairy industry to
become an off-shore enterprise.”
According to the news release, “Hayes asked
the PMMB to consider a price that will help alle
viate economic problems in the farm community
while not causing a need to increase consumer
prices or threatening the marketing of Pennsyl
vania milk.”
The PMMB
The PMMB serves the dairy industry as a pro
tectionist agency by ensuring that there is enough
locally produced and processed, fresh, afford
able drinking milk available to all residents, not
just for those in high competition markets.
The PMMB also protects farmers by auditing
processing plants and ensuring that farmers get
paid properly, fairly, and that the processors are
adequately financed to pay for the milk delivered
to them.
While milk promotional efforts treat milk as a
generic commodity, it is a perishable, variable
quality commodity, and the loss of the dairy
industry to rural Pennsylvania (the state with the
largest rural population in the United States)
would put consumers, especially rural consum
ers, at the mercy and uncertainty of imported
Earlier this year, as a result of
overwhelming support and at the
request of the state’s maintstream
agricultural organizations, the
PMMB maintained for a year a
30-cent premium to help dairy far
mers who experienced a several
dollar drop per hundredweight of
milk in pay because of an unex
pected drop in the price of cheese
at the now defunct Green Bay
Cheese Exchange.
That cheese price decline and
the subsequent decline in the price
of milk continued through spring,
and has not recovered well. Projec
tions are that it can be expected to
recover somewhat this fall, though
it is expected to decrease again in
later winter.
Because the cheese exchange
only dealt with the trading of a
THE SIX BREED SHOW OF ALL AMERICAMS
Plus Much Moie
• Pennsylvania Holstein Fall
Championship Show
• Youth Shows in All Six Breeds
• Commercial Exhibits - Daily
• Ayrshire & Holstein Breed
Sales
• Country Craft Fair - Daily
Sun.-Thurs. 12 Noon to 8 P.M.
Saturday, Sept. 20th
6 30 p m
Sunday through Thursday - September 21 thru 25
12 00 Noon -8 00 p m - Country Craft Market, DAC
Sunday, Sept. 21st
1 00 p m
8 00 p m
Monday, Sept. 22
8 00 a m -
minor percentage of the nation’s
cheese, and that price was used as a
major component in the formula
the USDA uses to calculate the
price of milk farmers receive, the
cheese price is now calculated by
surveying other and more rep
resentative markets.
That 30-cent premium that was
to end May 30, was on top of an
existing 50-cent premium, that has
been steady for years.
Any additional over-order pre
mium that the PMMB may consid
er during the Oct. 10 hearing
would be on top of the existing
premiums.
Arena Of Change
But the dairy industry is chal
lenged with more to adjust to than
bad weather and low milk prices
received at the farm.
Much dicussion about federal,
state and local policies has been
occuring in the wake of the fall of
the former Soviet Union, the
“Republican takeover” in
Washington and Pennsylvania.
In fact, there was failed effort by
(jmXW
- Pennsylvania Dairy Princess Pageant,
Sheraton Harrisburg East
Youth Programs
- Youth Showmanship Contest, Small
Arena
5 30 p m
6 30 p m
“A Brown Swiss Youth Happening", Dairy
Activity Center
- Pennsylvania Junior Guernsey
Breeders Meeting & Social, Room D
-Pennsylvania Ayrshire Youth Meeting &
Social, Room E
6 30 p m
7 00 p m
- Pennsylvania Junior Jersey Meeting
Room C
7 00 p m
- Careers and Opportunities Night, Dairy
Activity Center
7 00 p m
- Junior Dairy Show Olympics, SA
Invitational Youth Dairy Cattle Judging
Contest (4-H, FFA, and Collegiate) - SA
Pennsylvania Junior Dairy Show
Judging Contest Awards Banquet,
Sheraton Harrisburg East
Ayrshire Sale, SA
8 00 a m
-7 00 p m -
7 30 p m -
at least one state politician last year
to build support for eliminating
some authority of the PMMB.
There have been some fringe long
time opponents to the PMMB, but
under the current political attitude,
all aspects of government are
being reviewed and questioned.
It seems as though all aspects of
the dairy industry and farming in
general have changed tremendous
ly. It also appears as though, in an
attempt to adjust and jockey for
profitable and manageable posi
tions, change continues on most
fronts and can be expected to con
tinue for some time.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, currently
seeking re-election, this week con
tinued to publicize his request of
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman to set new dairy policy.
He is now calling for a national
floor price (minimum price) paid
to farmers of $14.50 per hundred
weight of milk, to cover their cost
of production.
Specter’s call for the floor price
echoes that of the National Far-
September
22-25
FARM SHOW COMPLEX
2301 NORTH CAMERON ST.
HARRISBURG,
PENNSYLVANIA 17110-9408
PHONE (717) 787-2905
• Youth Activities -
. • Invitational Youth Dairy Cattle
Judging Contest
• Jr. Dairy Management Contest -
$lOOO Scholarship
. • PA 4-H & FFA Dairy Judging
Contest
• Careers & Opportunities Night ■
Sunday
• Pennsylvania Junior Dairy Show
• Youth Showmanship Contest -
Sunday
Tuesday, Sept. 23
9 00 a m
9 00 a m
10 00 a m
10 00 am -
3 00 p m -
Wednesday, Sept. 24
9 00 am- National Guernsey Show - LA
9 00 a m - Eastern National Brown Swiss Show
5 00 p m - All American Buffet - DAC
7 00 p m - Eastern National Holstein Sale, Small
Thursday, Sept. 25
8 00 a m - Eastern National Holstein Show
8 00 a m - Mid-Atlantic Regional Jersey Show
- Supreme Champion (selection immediately following the
Holstein and Jersey shows)
LA = Large Arena, SA=Small Arena, DAC=Dairy Activities Center
PMM TO ATHENE)!
mers Union, which happened to be
in Washington DC Sept 6-10 to
promote its calling for a floor
price, as well as a basic formula
price based on production costs,
wholesale cheese prices and retail
milk prices.
“When the National Cheese
Exchange closed, USDA agreed to
base the price on wholesale cheese
prices. Their responsiveness is
very encouraging, but we need a
price that will take into account
producers’ costs and retail prices,”
said Robert Junk president of the
Pennsylvania Farmers Union, who
was in Washington the whole
week.
While the PFU and the NFU are
seeking a temporary floor price to
prevent even more fanners from
going out of business, others have
their own agenda.
Some of the differing agendas
have been coming from self
described “family farmer” organi
zations that formed in recent years
and gained some momentum and
(Turn to Pag* A 33)
All-American Ayrshire Show
Pennsylvania Fall Championship Holstein
Show
Junior Dairy Management Contest,
2nd Floor, Mam Building
Pennsylvania 4-H and FFA Dairy Judging
Forum - SA
Eastern National Milking Shorthorn Show
-LA
Arena