Friday, April 30, 2021
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National Milk seeking emergency pricing reform
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The National Milk Producers
Federation will request an emer-
gency USDA hearing on changing
the Class I fl uid milk price mover
in federal marketing orders.
The pandemic uncovered an
unexpected fl aw in the mover, and
National Milk’s board of directors
voted Friday to request a hearing.
The mover sets the Class I base
price to which a location diff eren-
tial is added. The calculation for
the mover was changed in 2019 to
provide better risk management
for fl uid milk processors. But that
change proved costly to dairy
farmers in the pandemic’s wildly
abnormal markets.
The previous mover was cal-
culated as the “higher of” the
advance Class III and Class IV
prices. It was changed to the aver-
age of Class III and Class IV
plus 74 cents per hundredweight,
which refl ected the average diff er-
ence of the Class III and Class IV
prices and the higher of the two.
The change was meant to
be revenue-neutral, with equity
among market participants a
stated goal. It functioned as such
until July 2020. Fueled by gov-
ernment purchases for food
boxes, cheese and Class III milk
prices soared.
The signifi cant gap between
Class III and Class IV prices
resulted in an average price lower
than what the previous “higher
of” calculation would have been.
Thus the Class I mover was
lower than what it would have
been under the previous mover,
and dairy farmers lost money on
Class I milk. Revenue from that
milk is shared in federal order
pools.
National Milk estimates dairy
farmers lost more than $725 mil-
lion compared with the previous
mover.
Its proposal would help recoup
the lost revenue and ensure
that neither farmers nor pro-
cessors are disproportionately
harmed by future signifi cant price
disruptions.
The proposal would modify the
current Class I mover by adjusting
the 74 cent amount added to the
average of the Class III and Class
IV price every two years based on
conditions over the previous 24
months, with the current mover
remaining the fl oor.
“As the COVID-19 experi-
ence has shown, market stresses
can shift the mover in ways that
affect dairy farmers much more
than processors. This was not
the intent of the Class I mover
formula negotiated within the
industry,” Randy Mooney, a
dairy farmer and chairman of
National Milk’s board of direc-
tors, said in a press release.
“Dairy farmers were pleased
with the previous method of deter-
mining Class I prices and had no
need to change it, but we tried to
accommodate the concerns of fl uid
processors for better risk manage-
ment,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the severe
imbalances we’ve seen in the past
year plainly show that a modifi ed
approach is necessary. We will urge
USDA to adopt our plan to restore
equity and create more orderly mar-
keting conditions,” he said.
National Milk’s request will be
to limit the hearing specifi cally to
proposed changes to the mover,
after which USDA would have 30
days to issue an action plan that
would determine whether USDA
would act on an emergency basis.
Fire damages Oregon creamery
Idaho student team wins
prestigious dairy competition
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
A student team from the
University of Idaho took top
honors at the 2021 North
American
Intercollegiate
Dairy Challenge held April
14-16.
The students are from the
university’s College of Agri-
cultural and Life Sciences
Department of Animal, Vet-
erinary and Food Sciences.
The team won a fi rst-
place platinum award in the
competition.
The competition pre-
sented students with an
applied dairy management
challenge. Teams analyzed a
commercial farm to develop
a comprehensive program
including recommendations
for nutrition, reproduction,
milking procedures, animal
health, housing and fi nancial
management.
Each team of four stu-
dents used its classroom
education to consult with
dairy operators to improve
their businesses. Panels of
dairy producers, veterinari-
ans, farm-fi nance specialists
and agribusiness profession-
als judged the student teams’
eff orts.
University of Idaho dairy
science professor Amin
Ahmadzadeh coached the
winning team.
“The strength of the
University of Idaho
From left, Nicole Poxleitner, Taylor Stephenson, Sadie
Hurley and Taythen Larson of the University of Idaho
won the annual Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge.
team and their presentation
was in recognizing some
of the issues related to the
host dairy farm, which were
agreeable, in most part, with
judges’ view,” he said.
“They also identifi ed sev-
eral great opportunities for
the dairy, which could bring
profi t to the dairy in a rea-
sonable amount of time,” he
said.
The team was able to
substantiate and back up its
fi ndings with graphs, data
and photos, he said.
“The students’ enthusi-
asm and positive attitude
to be a part of this valuable
educational experience was
the icing on the cake,” he
said.
The
team
included
pre-veterinary science major
Taythen Larson of Albion,
dairy science major Nicole
Poxleitner of Cottonwood,
animal
science-produc-
tion major Taylor Stephen-
son of Kuna and animal
science-production major
Sadie Hurley of Filer. The
team members won $200
scholarships and plaques.
The team analyzed the
Wall-Stone Holsteins dairy
of De Soto, Wis. The free-
stall dairy operation milks
870 cows with 22 full-time
employees.
Twenty-six
universi-
ties, including three teams
from Canada, in fi ve sep-
arate brackets participated
in the 2021 virtual Dairy
Challenge.
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S231770-1
McMINNVILLE, Ore. — Firefi ght-
ers brought a three-alarm fi re under control
April 20 at the Organic Valley Creamery in
McMinnville.
The structural damage is severe, offi cials
say, but there were no injuries to employees
or fi rst responders.
The cause of the fi re is unknown.
The fi re started around 2 p.m. in the
creamery’s warehouse at 700 North Highway
99 West.
Offi cials told the Capital Press the fi re
was so big that units from Salem, Willam-
ina, Lafayette, Carlton, Yamhill, Amity and
Tualatin were called to help.
At 2:30 p.m., the McMinnville Fire
Department asked residents within a quar-
ter-mile radius of the creamery to evacu-
ate and take shelter as a precaution against
refrigerant leaks. At 7:35 p.m., the depart-
ment lifted the order.
Firefi ghters were still working on the prop-
erty April 21. Ann Hanifan, operations chief
of the McMinnville Fire Department, told the
Capital Press she had just returned from the
site, where damage was “serious” and the fi re
is contained but “still smoldering.”
“(The site) is fairly damaged,” Hanifan
said. “We were able to stop (the fi re) from
taking out a portion of the building, but
they’ll have to do some sort of major restruc-
turing of the place.”
Mark Pfeiff er, Organic Valley’s vice pres-
ident of internal operations, said the scale of
damage is “quite devastating.”
Pfeiff er estimated Organic Valley has
spent up to $23 million since 2016 renovat-
ing the McMinnville plant. After survey-
Courtesy of Amy Hanifan/McMinnville Fire Department
Firefi ghters battle the fl ames Tuesday
at the Organic Valley Creamery in Mc-
Minnville, Ore.
ing the damage, Pfeiff er said he believes the
smaller 2,500-square-foot dryer facility sur-
vived but the larger 25,000-square-foot main
plant was a total loss.
Pfeiff er said he doesn’t know yet whether
the cooperative will rebuild the facility or
move elsewhere.
“Honestly, I can’t speculate on that yet,”
he said. “I’m kind of reeling.”
Pre-fi re, the facility handled about 500,000
pounds of milk daily from 42 area farms.
Pfeiff er said in the short term, the coopera-
tive is trying to divert milk to its “extensive
network of co-manufacturing partners” so
that farmers won’t have to dump milk. In the
longer term, Pfeiff er said, the plan is not yet
clear.
In a statement April 20, Organic Valley
said how the fi re started is still unknown.
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