Dairy producers in the Golden State are unhappy after California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross extended a temporary price increase across all classes of milk, but did not increase the adjustment requested by the producers.

About 80 percent of the milk processed in California falls into Class 4a and 4b.

The producers’ petition, which used 2012 data, would have raised the Class 4b price by about $0.67 per hundredweight, or an increase of about $0.28 per cwt to the Overbase price.

In July, California’s Class 4b price was significantly below the Federal Order Class III price, the benchmark price for milk sold to cheese plants around the country.

Producers attended a hearing Sept. 12, hoping an agreement containing the petitioned increases between producers and processors would stick, negotiated by Assemblyman Richard Pan and supported by several legislators, according to an article by Carol Ryan Dumas in Capital Press.

Producers believed they had an agreement with processors that would ask CDFA for an increase of 46 cents/cwt. in the 4b milk price, according to DairyBusiness, and raise the whey cap from 75 cents to $1. In the end, processors, represented by Dairy Institute of California, refused to honor the deal they had negotiated.

"While there are positive signs in the marketplace, the fragility of the country's economic recovery and the stability of the dairy sector compel me to make this extension," Ross was quoted in an article by Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee.

"However, I am convinced that continued adjustments to the minimum price are inadequate to address the ongoing difficulties in the dairy industry. Our antiquated state pricing system demands structural reform."

That didn’t put smiles on the faces of dairy producers, however, who summed up their plight by saying they are underpaid. PD

—Summarized by PD staff from cited sources