FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 16
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
When
the
safety
net fails
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
MARGIN
PROTECTION
PROGRAM
fails to protect
dairy farmers
when cost
of production
skyrockets past
price of milk,
producers say
J
oaquin Contente was one of 25,162 U.S. dairy
farmers who had faith that a new federal safe-
ty net would protect them from a repeat of the
battering they had taken in 2009, when markets
collapsed during the global recession and milk pric-
es sank far below the cost of production.
But they found out the hard way that their faith was misplaced
when global dairy markets collapsed again in 2015 and 2016.
“I had some hope that it would work at some point. … It was
a miserable failure,” said Contente, who milks 800 cows in Han-
ford, Calif.
The Margin Protection Program, established in the 2014 Farm
Bill, was designed to guarantee that dairies had
some income even when the U.S. all-milk price
dropped below the national average feed costs.
Margins on 90 percent of a producer’s estab-
lished production would be covered when milk
prices dropped, feed prices increased, or both.
MPP was designed to provide free cata-
strophic coverage, insuring a $4 per hundred-
weight margin when producers signed up and
Joaquin
paid a $100 administrative fee.
Contente
Here’s how MPP is supposed to work. If
USDA calculates the difference between the national all-milk
price and a formula that determines the national average feed cost
is less than $4, the MPP would make up the difference.
For example, if the average milk price is only $3 more per
hundredweight than the national price of feed during one of the
six, two-month program periods in a year, the program will pay $1
per hundredweight of milk to those farmers who signed up.
The intended strength of the program, however, was that farm-
ers could buy coverage for a larger margin, up to $8 per hundred-
weight. Producers can insure up to 90 percent of their milk pro-
duction at a higher margin.
For the most part, that hasn’t panned out. Producers say they
have avoided buy-up coverage because USDA’s MPP margin cal-
culations don’t refl ect actual milk prices and feed costs and over-
state the margins dairymen actually see.
With the U.S. House and Senate ag committees starting work
on the 2018 Farm Bill, fi xing MPP is the top priority for many
Total premiums/
administrative fees
Total payouts
Participating
Premiums/fees
Payouts
$8.00
264
5.50
506
1.73
0
4.50
136
0.07
0
Total
25,162
$72.87
$0.73
2016
Participating
farms
138
225
158
2,184
1,877
342
463
405
18,801
24,292
Premiums/fees
($ millions)
Payouts*
($ millions)
1.18
0.55
6.2
10.19
0.54
1.19
0.43
1.88
$22.79
1.28
0.47
5.48
3.21
0
0
0
0
$11.46
Coverage
$8.00
7.50
6.50
5.50
4.50
Total
*Estimate
Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
Capital Press graphic
Turn to MPP, Page 10
Bills reversing GMO pre-emption die in Oregon
Questions loom over cross-pollination, mediation, senator says
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Two bills that would
have allowed local governments in Or-
egon to regulate genetically engineered
crops have died in the Legislature.
Lawmakers prohibited most local
governments from restricting seed in
2013, but Senate Bill 1037 and House
Bill 2469 would have exempted genet-
ically modifi ed organisms, or GMOs,
from that statewide pre-emption law.
Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Port-
land, said he decided to let SB 1037
die during the April 13 meeting of the
Senate Environment and Natural Re-
sources Committee, which he chairs.
A legislative deadline previously
killed HB 2469 in the House Agricul-
ture and Natural Resources Committee.
There are still too many loom-
ing questions about the extent of
cross-pollination of conventional
and organic crops from GMOs and
the effi cacy of mediation aimed at
promoting coexistence, Dembrow
said.
“I want to get a sense if there are
problems with contamination or if
there are problems with the media-
tion process,” Dembrow said, add-
ing that he planned to hold an infor-
mational session on the matter.
The committee recently heard
confl icting testimony about the fre-
quency of cross-pollination among
genetically engineered, conventional
and organic crops.
Turn to GMO, Page 10
ODFW Commission begins review of Oregon’s wolf management plan
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon’s wolf management plan
is up for public review as the ODFW
Commission once again attempts to
balance the restoration of an apex pred-
ator with the havoc they can cause in
rural areas.
The commission will take com-
ments on a draft conservation and
management plan during an April 21
meeting in Klamath Falls, and will re-
peat the process May 19 in Portland.
The commission eventually will adopt
a fi ve-year management plan; no date
is set yet.
Russ Morgan, ODFW’s wolf pro-
gram manager, said the draft manage-
ment plan builds on what wildlife biolo-
gists have learned over the years. When
the fi rst management plan was adopted
in 2005, there were no documented
wolves in Oregon. The fi rst pups were
discovered in 2008, and by the end of
2011 there were 29 confi rmed wolves
in Oregon. The state documented 64
wolves at the end of 2013, and a mini-
mum of 112 by the end of 2016, includ-
ing 11 packs and eight breeding pairs.
Morgan said the plan couples state
data with “tons of research” that’s been
done on wolves in Oregon and else-
where over the years.
“This plan still maintains a very ac-
tive conservation approach, it doesn’t
change in that regard,” Morgan said.
Turn to WOLF, Page 14
Courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
OR42, the breeding female of the
Chesnimnus Pack in northern Wallowa
County in February. Oregon’s wolf man-
agement plan is up for public review.
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