With world and U.S. milk production on the rise, building markets for U.S. dairy farmers is critical. In April, the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) export assistance program expanded the dairy products eligible for aid consideration by adding whole milk powder to its product mix.
This is in addition to the two other product categories that most directly impact producers’ revenue stream – American-type cheeses and butter containing 82% butterfat.
In the second quarter of 2015, CWT members submitted 403 requests for export assistance, bringing the total for the year to 721. The 114 requests that will receive assistance in the second quarter bring the total number of assisted requests for the first six months of 2015 to 252.
The result is sales contracts for 38.6 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese, 30.8 million pounds of butter and 20.3 million pounds of whole milk powder to be delivered through December 2015.
When combined with the 29 million pounds of cheese, butter and whole milk powder sold in 2014 for delivery in 2015, CWT members will be sending the milkfat equivalent of nearly 1.5 billion pounds of milk into key overseas markets, or the equivalent of the average annual milk production from 67,391 U.S. dairy cows.
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) provided the content on this page. CWT was designed by America’s dairy farmers to benefit all U.S. dairy farmers. It is a voluntary, producer-funded program developed by National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to strengthen and stabilize producer prices. Participating producers contribute four cents per hundredweight of milk produced to fund the program. For membership information go to the website.
