The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has announced a multi-faceted Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) modernization rulemaking action plan that may include a tentative hearing start date of Aug. 23, 2023.
Released on June 1, the initial time frame of the formal rulemaking process – should the secretary of agriculture choose to proceed – is designed to ensure the hearing concludes within 120 days of the publication of the action plan, as mandated by law.
According to the action plan, pre-hearing steps include:
- June 14 – Deadline to submit additional proposals
- June 16 – Virtual pre-hearing information session
- June 20 – Deadline to submit modified proposals
- Late July – Hearing notice published in the Federal Register
- Aug. 23 – Tentative hearing start date
If issued, a notice of hearing detailing the date, time and location of the hearing, and the proposals under consideration would be published in the Federal Register. The notice also would detail the deadline for all data requests to ensure the requested data is available at the start of the hearing.
On May 2, USDA received a formal proposal from the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to amend the pricing provisions of all 11 FMMOs. The NMPF and its 25 cooperative members represent approximately two-thirds of the 28,000 U.S. commercial dairy farmers. The proposal requests USDA consider amending five provisions related to:
- increasing manufacturing (make) allowances
- returning to the “higher of” as the mover for Class I milk prices
- updating the milk composition factors
- removing barrel cheese from the Class III price formula, and
- updating the Class I price surface.
The NMPF proposal has not yet been approved for inclusion in a notice of hearing. Before deciding whether a hearing will be held, the USDA is inviting interested parties to submit additional proposals regarding potential amendments to the current pricing provisions applicable to all FMMOs. For other details on submitting proposals, click here.
On May 30, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) provided additional information on their previous petitions, seeking to increase FMMO manufacturing (or “make”) allowances. Those proposals are now considered additional proposals in conjunction with the request.
Once posted, all proposals may be viewed here.
