Since last spring as part of the overall National Milk Producers Federation Strategic Planning Effort, a variety of options for longer-term, big picture changes to milk pricing and milk regulation have been looked at. NMPF's Chris Galen says there have been three key elements of that since last year.
"One is looking at reforming the Federal Milk Marketing Order system," Galen said. "The second is an income protection plan to help indemnify farmers against bad profit margins, or at least bad pricing margins, which was the big issue last year with low milk prices and high input costs. The third thing we've been looking at as part of this overall package is what is going to be the future role of Cooperatives Working Together and what can we do to get more participation in it, what are some of the things we can do to change its focus so that we move beyond just having whole herd retirements."
Now Galen says the effort has been expanded to include other production management proposals from any NMPF members to a Subcommittee on Production Management to see if there are other ideas to manage supply, whether it be voluntary, a government program or a combination of the two. The subcommittee will develop pros and cons for each approach presented and make recommendations to NMPF's Strategic Planning Task Force.
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