September 16, 2016
CapitalPress.com
Dairy
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Farmers
Creamery
Cooperative
facility sale
pending
NMPF, dairy co-ops agree
to settle anti trust lawsuit
By ERIC MORTENSON
National Milk Produc-
ers Federation and member
dairy cooperatives have
agreed to pay $52 million in
a class action lawsuit alleg-
ing the Cooperatives Work-
ing Together herd-retire-
ment program reduced the
supply of milk, eliminated
competition and artificially
raised the price of milk and
milk products to consumers.
Plaintiffs claimed the
program — which ran from
2003 to 2010 and paid dairy
farmers to destroy their
herds — was responsible
for the removal of more
than 500,000 cows and re-
duced the supply of milk
by approximately 10 billion
pounds, according to court
records.
The complaint cites stud-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
ies by University of Mis- Dairy cooperatives have agreed to pay $52 million in a class action lawsuit alleging the Cooperatives
souri ag economist Scott Working Together herd-retirement program reduced the supply of milk, eliminated competition and
Brown, commissioned by artiicially raised the price of milk and milk products to consumers.
NMPF to analyze the CWT
program, to allege the pro-
gram was responsible for a CWT retains an export as- program and allow us to fo- used for the purchase of
cumulative increase in milk sistance program.
cus on the future,” NMPF fresh milk products.
price revenue on the farm of
In the Aug. 11 settlement President and CEO Jim
The law firm of Hagens
$9.55 billion.
agreement, released last Mulhern said in a written Berman Sobol Shapiro,
The plaintiffs claimed vi- week, the defendants stat- statement.
which filed the lawsuit,
olation of antitrust statutes ed despite their belief that
“It is important to called the herd-retirement
and unjust enrichment and they are not liable for the note that the court has program a conspiracy by
had sought a jury trial. The claims asserted and have found no antitrust viola- the biggest dairy produc-
lawsuit was originally filed defenses to support that tion and CWT makes no ers in the country in a clas-
in September 2011 in U.S. position, they are agreeing admission of wrongdo- sic price-fixing scheme
District Court in Northern to the settlement to “avoid ing in this settlement,” he and is urging consumers
California.
further expenses, inconve- stated.
in the 15 applicable states
In Addition to NMPF, the nience, and the uncertain-
Dairy Farmers of Ameri- and the District of Co-
lawsuit named Dairy Farm- ties and business disruption ca referred Capital Press to lumbia to file claims for
ers of America, Land O’ and burden of continued NMPF for comment.
reimbursement.
Lakes, Dairylea and Agri- litigation … .”
The settlement agree-
Compassion Over Kill-
Mark — all dairy coopera-
“Settlement of this litiga- ment is subject to the ap- ing, a nonprofit animal pro-
tives that participated in the tion is the most sensible and proval of the court. The $52 tection organization, stated
CWT program.
responsible course of ac- million settlement will be it is proud to have spear-
Herd retirement was dis- tion to maintain the current a combination of cash and headed the research that led
continued after 2010, but CWT Export Assistance in-store loyalty cards to be to the lawsuit.
Capital Press
Organic Valley, the nation’s
largest organic dairy coopera-
tive, announced it will buy and
renovate the Farmers Cream-
ery Cooperative in McMinn-
ville, Ore.
The pending sale is the latest
turn for FCC. Earlier this year,
members accepted an agreement
that allowed dairy farmers to ap-
ply for membership in the much
larger Northwest Dairy Associ-
ation of Seattle, which includes
Darigold. The McMinnville
plant was not included in the
agreement.
The McMinnville cream-
ery will close and be reno-
vated “to align with Organic
Valley’s operations,” the com-
pany said in a news release.
The work will include a “sig-
niicant investment in new
equipment and state-of-the art
technology.” The facility will
reopen in late winter or early
spring of 2017, according to
the news release. Additional
details of the sale were not im-
mediately available.
Organic Valley, based in
Wisconsin, represents more
than 1,800 farmers in 36 states
and describes saving family
farms as its “founding mis-
sion.” Organic Valley produces
organic milk, cheese, butter,
eggs, soy and other products.
In a news release, the com-
pany said its “regional model”
means milk is produced, bot-
tled and distributed locally “to
ensure fewer miles from farm
to table and to support our lo-
cal economies.” Organic Val-
ley has 72 co-op members in
Oregon and Washington.
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Generations of dairy workers help plant run smoothly
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va.
(AP) — Homer Lanham
started working at the old
Valley Bell dairy plant on
Charleston’s West Side in
1942. When he retired 44
years later in 1986, Homer
handed the reins to his son
Bruce, who monitors the
pasteurization process at the
dairy.
Today, at what is now the
United Dairy plant, Bruce is
showing his son, Matt, the
ropes.
If all goes according to
plan, by the time Matt is
ready to retire someday, the
family will have invested
more than a century in the
same dairy business.
“It’s been good. It’s
a good job,” Bruce said.
“Good benefits, and all that.
That’s a good thing to pass
on.”
It’s not easy work,
though. The machines are
loud, too loud for easy con-
versation, and they require
a certain amount of dark,
thick grease to run smoothly.
Condensation drops from the
ceiling and the metal pipes,
making the cement floor
slippery.
Bruce and his coworkers
wear white jumpsuits cov-
ered with inevitable smudg-
es and stains, and slip-re-
sistant boots to keep from
falling. He pauses to wipe
the sweat from his brow and
checks the levels on a giant
tank.
Matt, he said, has proven
himself to be a hard worker
and a quick learner.
“The best quote I ever
heard from him, he came
home after three or four
weeks of working with me
and told my daughter, he
said, ‘Dad’s really smarter
than I ever thought he was,”’
Bruce said.
He smiles proudly at the
memory.
“I knew I had him then.”
It’s a legacy that’s import-
ant and valuable to his family
as well as to his employers.
The dairy processes 1 mil-
lion 8-ounce bottles of milk
for school children in West
Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and
Virginia each week. It also
processes another 500,000
gallons of milk each week,
trucking in the product from
farms and co-ops for miles
around. On site the raw milk
is pasteurized, homogenized
and separated into skim,
1-percent, 2-percent and
whole milk, and some of it
is turned into chocolate and
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By MARIA YOUNG
9
strawberry milk.
The liquid is kept in hold-
ing tanks, then transferred to
coolers. At the same time,
vats full of thick liquid plastic
are being poured into molds,
shaped into gallon jugs and
carried down conveyor belts
where they are slapped with
labels and illed.
Still more machines put
lids on the jugs and twist
them to seal. Eventually
they are loaded onto pallets,
transported onto trucks and
shipped to stores and grocery
shelves.
It takes a staff of 53, work-
ing around the clock six days
a week, to pull it off.
“It’s very hard to staff,”
said Charlie Egnor, plant
manager.
“We have a lot of good
employees, but it’s a de-
manding business. It’s long
hours, it’s hard work,” he
added. “Sometimes you go
through two or three people
before you get to somebody
who wants to stay a long time
and make a career of it.”
By the time someone has
been on staff for ive years
or more, they’ve learned
to troubleshoot, to prevent
problems and to act quickly
if something goes wrong.
That’s the point at which
a worker really becomes im-
portant to the task at hand,
said Scott Womack, the
plant’s quality assurance
manager.
“They learn the business.
They know what it takes to
get it done. It’s a great relief
to be able to depend on those
guys,” he said.
Homer Lanham died the
day after Thanksgiving last
year, shortly before his grand-
son Matt was hired at United
Dairy. In a way, though, Ho-
mer’s legacy lives on.
Bruce is a grandfather
now. His daughter, a teacher,
gave birth to twins just a few
weeks ago, and Matt has a
little girl named Peyton, who
is 18 months old. Whatever
Peyton and her new cousins
decide to do with their lives,
Bruce imagines the work
ethic his father instilled in
him, and that he instilled in
his children, will eventually
ind its way to the next gen-
eration.
“It think it’s very import-
ant to teach kids ... If you
don’t teach ‘em to work, they
don’t know how to work,”
Bruce said. “If parents show
a good work ethic, it gets
passed down to their kids.”
That, he said, is the real
sign of a job well done.
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
Dairy prices
continue to
be mixed
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
U
.S. dairy prices were
mixed in the shortened
Labor Day Week. The
Cheddar blocks reversed two
weeks of decline, climbing
to $1.72 on Wednesday, then
inched back 2 cents, but closed
Friday at $1.71 per pound,
up 3 cents on the week and 1
1/2-cents above a year ago.
The Cheddar barrels, after
plunging 24 cents in the previous
four weeks, climbed to $1.66
Wednesday, but closed Friday
at $1.6050, down 3 1/2-cents on
the week and 1 1/2-cents above
a year ago.
Nine cars of block ex-
changed hands on the week at
the CME and 24 of barrel.
The blocks plunged 6 cents
on an offer Monday, as traders
awaited the afternoon’s World
Agricultural Supply and De-
mand Estimates report, but then
regained a penny and a half
Tuesday on an unilled bid, inch-
ing back to $1.6650 per pound.
The barrels shed 3 1/2 cents
Monday, with 14 cars exchang-
ing hands, and was down 2 more
cents Tuesday, with 10 more
cars brought to Chicago and the
price falling to $1.55, lowest
level since June 27, 2016. Some
wonder if U.S. cheese prices
could slip below rising global
levels.
Midwest cheese production
has slowed somewhat, accord-
ing to Dairy Market News.
“With the seasonal downturn
in milk intakes, manufacturers
report discounted spot loads are
not as readily available. Proces-
sors are hesitant to buy addi-
tional milk unless they can get
a good deal or need it to meet
commitments.
“Cheese orders are steady.
A few cheesemakers note an
increase in orders from food ser-
vice over the last week. Retail
orders for specialty cheese va-
rieties are also strong. Contacts
suggest inventories are still a
little long, but not to the point of
being a concern.”
Western cheese output is
“relatively steady and consis-
tent with available milk supply,”
says DMN. “Although milk
production is waning a little
in the northern states of the
region, processors report there
are not any major problems
getting enough milk for the
cheese vats.
Domestic retail and food
service demand has been
good. Customers are taking
regular shipments and help-
ing keep cheese stocks under
control. Industry contacts say
commodity cheese inventories
are long, but sellers are not in a
rush to clear stocks.
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