National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) President and CEO Jim Mulhern provided an update on NMPF recommendations and a potential timeline for submitting a Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearing petition to USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service this spring.
Summarized in his weekly NMPF Presidents Report, Jan. 20, Mulhern said the NMPF board was moving toward completion of a final piece of the FMMO recommendation package.
While most recommendations were approved last October, a specific recommendation related to Class I pricing differentials has taken longer to develop.
The NMPF’s Federal Order Task Force has examined wide-ranging datasets on national Class I differentials over the past three months, studying the 3,100 county-level Class I differentials that have been in place since 2000, Mulhern said. The panel also reviewed current price relationships and milk movement, with an eye on keeping milk bottling plants competitive while also ensuring dairy farmers receive a sufficient pay price so fluid plants will receive an adequate milk supply.
The task force is scheduled to vote on a Class I recommendation on Jan. 27, putting the final piece of NMPF recommendations in place.
Other aspects of the proposal, unanimously approved in October 2022 by both the NMPF Economic Policy Committee and the board of directors, cover: the Class I mover; use of barrel cheddar cheese in the protein component price formula; extending reporting limits on forward-priced sales of nonfat dry milk and dry whey; updating the milk component factors for protein, nonfat solids and other solids in the Class III and Class IV skim price formulas; updating FMMO manufacturing (make) allowances; and developing a process to ensure make allowances are reviewed more frequently.
With addition of the recommendation regarding Class I differentials, the entire suite of proposals will then be vetted by NMPF’s Economic Policy Committee in February and then by the board of directors in March, with the goal of fashioning it into a formal request to the USDA later this spring for a FMMO national hearing.
Many NMPF task force members are already assembling testimony and exhibits to be included in the upcoming hearing submission to the USDA, Mulhern said.
