Class I

The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service announced a final rule amending the uniform pricing formulas applicable in all 11 Federal Milk Marketing Orders.  The final rule will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, January 17th.  The amendment...

Earlier this year, a unique milk processing facility opened its doors east of Twin Falls.  Suntado is a 190,000 square-foot “state of the art” facility that will process, initially, between 800,000 and one million pounds of milk per day.  And when completely...

There is still pushback against the USDA proposal for modernizing the Federal Milk Marketing Orders.  The National Milk Producers Federation's Chris Galen said much of the pushback has to do with Class One pricing.   “I would say, for the most part, the things that farm organizations wanted, dairy farm organizations wanted, were reflected in that proposal," Galen said.  "So, one of t...

The USDA released its recommendations for modernizing the Federal Milk Marketing Orders last month.   “Overall, we're very pleased with the recommendations that USDA has come up with. We put a lot of proposals into the record," said Stephen Cain, senior director of economic research and analysis for the National Milk Producers Federation.  "So did ...

The National Milk Producers Federation’s Board of Directors unanimously endorsed a proposal to modernize the Federal Milk Marketing Order system earlier this month.  The Federation says the move caps more than two years of discussion and more than 130 meetings on different aspects of the proposal.  The plan to r...

Earlier this week, National Milk Producers Federation leadership unanimously endorsed a proposal to modernize the Federal Milk Marketing Order milk-pricing system.  The plan includes returns to the "higher of" Class I mover, discontinuing including barrel cheese in the protein component price formula.  It exte...

New legislation introduced last week in the Senate calls for Federal Milk Marketing Order hearings addressing Class I milk pricing. Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Republican Susan Collins of Maine introduced the bipartisan Dairy Pricing Opportunity Act ...

Earlier this week, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced she is moving forward with a dairy pricing hearing. The New York Democrat announced permission was granted for a hearing in the U.S. Senate Agriculture Subcommittee she chairs on Dairy, Livestock, Poultry, Local Food Systems, Food Safety and Security ...

FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative has submitted a proposal to the USDA to revert back to an old pricing order. The organization would like to revert back to using the “higher of” the Class III or Class IV price in calculating the Class I mover in Federal Milk Marketing Orders if USDA’s AMS grants a national emergency hearing to address the Class I mover issue. FarmFirst Gener ...