Lancaster Farm Bureau Bucks CWT Proposals PARADISE (Lancaster Co.) On June 3, the board of directors of the Lancaster County Farm Bureau-(LCFB) voted, without dissent, to abstain from support for the program called Coopera tives Working Together (CWT) as proposed by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) headquartered in Arlington, Va. The LCFB is taking a position different from a recent 14-to-2 vote of the statewide Pennsylva nia Farm Bureau board to sup port CWT. “Trying to raise prices by limiting supply in an open mar ketplace is foolish, ineffective, and counterproductive, especially as we look at the long run,” said Don Ranck, board vice president and policy development chair. Ranck owns a small dairy and large farm bed and breakfast in Paradise. “The CWT proposal is an at tempt to create an illusion of unity in trying to raise low farm gate milk prices, when in reality it has the potential to be the most corrupt and divisive in the histo ry of the organized dairy industry in the U. 5.,” he warned. “The CWT program is not an idea that was tried in the debate of policy development among elected Farm Bureau members, nor through elected cooperative delegate review. It was hastily contrived in a back room some where, and is now being foisted onto Farm Bureau members and cooperative members in a top down approach, very much coun ter to die mission statements of Farm Bureau and of most coop eratives, so the serious flaws in it were never worked out,” said Ranck. Others see serious problems. It ' more advantageous to in- vest in advertising and product promotion than to try to limit supply,” said A 1 Wanner, LCFB board member and owner of a 400-cow dairy near Narvon. Wanner prefers to see substantive changes to the current CWT pro gram, rather than have no pro gram to enhance farmgate milk prices. “But we also do not see the USDA using the Dairy Ex port Incentive Program to its maximum allowable level, nor adequate administration of the new Milk Income Loss Contract program,” Wanner noted. Steve Hershey, Elizabethtown, LCFB board president and owner of family-operated herds of more than 250 cows, noted that dairy farmers who use the tools of con tracting, forward pricing, or hedging will be big losers if a pro gram like CWT goes through. “My family would stand to lose up to $BOO per month in the next year if the CWT program is im plemented,” said Hershey. “Why would we support a program that works against the tools of mar ketplace economics that we al ready have?” The NMPF board is scheduled to meet in late June to decide whether the CWT program has the support of producers of at least 80 percent of all milk pro duction in the U.S. Chairman of the NMPF board James P. (Tom) Camerlo, owner of a 500-cow dairy near Florence, Colo., also recently elected chairman of the board of Dairy Farmers of Amer ica, by far the largest cooperative in the U.S., is making the as sumption that 80 percent is needed to implement the pro gram, according to Gordon Hoo ver, NMPF board member and owner of a 110-cow herd in Nar von, neighbor to Wanner. “ Hoover is on the road promoting the program, trying to drum up support, even though there are serious misgivings about the basic premises on which it is built,” said Ranck. “Hoover is also secretary of the corporate board of Land O’Lakes Cooperative, so it appears to some that both he and Camerlo have conflicts of interest.” Ranck and Hoover are both former presidents of the board of LCFB, and both hold elected leadership positions in the Land O’Lakes Cooperative, which has offices in Carlisle and in Minne apolis, Minn. “We agree on the vast majority of solutions to problems, but on this issue we are diametrically opposite,” said Ranck. There are others who are out lining clear problems with the CWT concept. Ken Bailey, Penn State dairy economist (see his column on page Al 6), posted to his Website at http:// dairyoutlook.aers.psu.edu a bal anced article showing why CWT looks attractive at initial glance, but he delivers a stinging crit icism of the concept on which it is based. “At first glance, it sounds like a good plan,” said Bailey. “It will be viewed in Washing ton circles as a self-help program that won’t cost the U.S. Treasury a dime,” he notes. “And dairy producers who have been facing low milk prices since nine-eleven will be glad that something, any thing, is being done. “But we can’t have our cheese and eat it, too,” he continued. We must choose between government price supports and Supply man agement or marketplace econom ics, ' ’t have it both cr* c*’’ ■“" 12 Ways To Income George DeVault Special To Lancaster Farming By becoming a more aggres sive, direct marketer, there is al most no end to the ways you can increase income from a dairy farm. Here are just 12 ideas: 1. Get a raw milk license and start selling milk directly. 2. Bag up manure and sell it for garden fertilizer. 3. Solicit school tours of your farm. 4. If you have a stocked pond, open it for fee fishing. In winter, rent it out for ice skating parties. 5. Plant a pumpkin patch on a few conveniently located acres this month. Come fall, you can make money on pick-your-own pumpkins. 6. Offer hayrides, especially haunted hayrides in October. This will compliment your pumpkin patch and provide a market for bundles of corn stalks and other seasonal decorations. 7. Sell straw or spoiled hay for garden mulch. Bills stacking up? It's been a rough year for the dairy industry and you probably have more bills than you want to think about. Mid Atlantic Farm Credit wants to give you a different kind of bill-the kinds with dead presidents on them. In April 2003, we distributed over $17.9 million to our borrowers. And that's just the latest in a long history of success: since 1990, we've returned more than $146 million in patronage payments. What other bank can say that? Patronage refunds. Just one more reason to * cpme to Mid Atlantic. A Mid Atlantic Farm Credit 800.477.9947 mafc.com Housing Lender Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 7, 2003-A27 Boost Dairy This Year 8. Sell firewood. 9. Sell large rocks, even boul ders to landscapers. 10. Offer freezer beef, pork, or other meat products. 11. Add value to your milk by turning it into yogurt, cheese, cream, or ice cream. 12. Get certified as an organic dairy to boost the value of what you produce. But how do you reach custom ers to do any of this? A good place to start is by par ticipating in the open gate farm tour that most county extension offices sponsor each year. It will bring hundreds, maybe even thousands of customers out to your farm for free. You can also get free publicity by getting the local newspaper or TV station to do a feature story on the changes you’re making. Reporters are always looking for a good good news story about farmers. It’s easier than you might think. I’ll have much more about that in future columns. Oar ie Crop *> i W id ■ ir * o*4 1
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