Question: Do you favor a National Supply Management Program?
During the three weeks in late July and early August we received 573 responses.

289 in favor of a national supply management program  (50%)

215 opposed to such a program (38%)

69 maybes  (12%)

Here were the comments made - unedited as they appeared under the poll results (newest to oldest)

J.L. Gonzalez
Aug 4, 2009 In response to Rob Hunt's comment Jul 29, "I also believe the dairy industry needs to take a hard look at advertising." Rob, that is exactly what has happened over the past 5 to 7 years in the dairy promotion programs managed by dairy farmers for the dairy industry. Dairy farmers sitting on various State and Regional Promotion Boards have moved the money away from advertising and into more partnerships with sellers of our products. Rob Hunt also states: "The amount of money that goes to DMI is not affected by sales, it is a factor per cwt.Therefore, DMI's revenues are not effected by poor advertising nor is the income or job security of the person responsible for ad design." Actually, the more cwt's we/DMI sells does impact the money DMI receives. And you're correct, the factor per cwt is a constant 15 cents per cwt shipped. But that 15 cents is the same 15 cents from 25 years ago. Everything in advertising has increased over these years. We have less impact with straight advertising, (paper, radio, TV, magazine, etc.)which is why the change in direction of the promotion money now being leverged with partnership with NFL, McDonalds, Domino's, etc. Rob Hunt also wrote: "The milk mustache ads on the back of Newsweek or Better Homes and Gardens doesn't really hit the target of the age group that it is intended for." The fact is "milk mustache" ads are from Milk Pep and not from the 15 cent promotion dollars. That money is put in by the processors of fluid milk (20 cent on fluid milk only) I believe that DMI is working in partnership with Milk Pep to improve their message to all consumers of milk and dairy products across the board. Rob, I would suggest that you attend the next promotion board meeting in your area. Ask questions and see how DMI and your State and Regional Promotion Boards are using your money in the most effective way possible. I believe in the current promotion direction and I sit on our local board (DairyMAX) and also sit on the DMI BOD. I am also in my second year of my second term as a National Dairy Board Director. I've seen these changes over the past six years myself. I am also proud to be part of the change in direction of DMI and their/our promotion efforts.

Dale Windecker
Aug 3, 2009 Our current Dairy pricing system IS NOT free market when two bidders (Kraft/Dean Foods)set the price on the CME. Doesn't it bother anyone Dean Foods announce 150% increase in profits and farmers income was slashed by -50%???? This is not free market. We need a new price discovery factoring in our cost of production like the cheese makers have in their "make allowance" off of us!! At the same time, there needs to be a supply management factor so we don't over produce that's how other businesses manage their inventories. This over supply must be determined by accounting for the MPC's and Caseins that are flooding our market through a loophole in the WTO and displacing domestic NDM. Our ADA money is also helping to sell these foreign MPC's. That is wrong. S-889.

Randy Milton
Jul 31, 2009  support a supply mangement program. I have milked on a base before, didn't like it, but I don't like the ups and downs of the dairy business now. Every time it gets good, with todays technology it is easy to flood the market again. Use to with two surge buckets and 30 cows it was hard to get an over supply of milk real quick. We need a more stable price so we can plan our future.

bob
Jul 31, 2009 Has anybody ever thought about a base program that takes aug. jul. sep. milk production average (when milk output is lower than usual, and demand slacks off from consumers at time also)and using that to establish an base and anything over that you get 8 dollars hundred weight. To stabilize milk production and only make more base avliable when it is needed and buffer the market with imports so that we don't over base the markets. Face the facts we can not stop imports but we can slow them down. Also figure out if the south east is always in the negative for milk why they can't give the south east producers a premium for their milk becuase it localy made so that means trucking should cost less. That would encourage more producers to move to the southeast when base is avileable and balance the market.

Mike Koeller
Jul 31, 2009 we need the supply management to keep all of the dairy farms in check. Why let these big dairies keep trying to push more and more cows and push the smaller family farm out of business? The problem we have is everyone wants to get more $ for everything they do and it has become so extreme it is killing the entire dairy industry. Why are we not setting a price for a year based on farm size and gauruntee a certain $/cwt until you have reached your certain cwt quota and then for every cwt over you take a lesser $ amount for your milk. I don't know but i think if a farmer was able to garuntee there price of milk for an entire year they would be willing to pay a fee per cwt to there milk plant to garuntee a stable market. This would allow for times when the milk company has a surplus of milk they can take a load of milk to a farm dump it in the lagoon and put it on the fields. Something needs to be done or there won't be dairy farmers left. I am a dairy farmer in wisconsin and i am not trying to get rich I am just trying to make a living. Right now doesn't make sense because everytime you step out of the house to start your day you just wonder how much $ are we going to lose today. LETS DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!

pater van rijn
Jul 30, 2009 CWT has done nothing for the market but everything for the bankers. If we know there is a program that will keep milk prices artifiacly inflated, what is to keep every body from milking (3000 cows plus) knowing they have a cruch to fall back on every time. It takes times like these to recover losses and make every body think twice about what they are doing. You need peaks and valleys in pricing to let the market correct it's self. Plus our milk coops need to do what they were intened for grow a set of webbos and start demanding and not bowing down to pressures of processors and close the gap of shelf pricing compared to on the farm prices. Feed our great nation first don't import it.

Bryan Gotham
Jul 30, 2009 To move food great distances applies a very large carbon foot print cost on that food unless you can have pasture based dairying like New Zealand . Of course for the most part in this country we use tractors to harvest. The price trend on fossil fuels is going to be even higher in the future. Because of this it makes more sense for countries to focus on their own their own food soveriegnty and produce their own food locally. Yes in the future there will be 3 billion more mouths to feed but are they going to really have the money to pay for this food? I guess with the status quo we will have to just give it to them at a huge loss to the American farmer. That is what we a doing today with our hugely subsidized broken free market (Deip program,Milc,Support program). Today we are more subsidized than Canada . Canada does have efficient farms with supply management. Milk per cow, per farm and labor hour are all increasing in Canada . So being above average still exists with supply management. China is buying huge tracks of Africa to feed their own people. Do we really think they want to be dependant on us for food? Overall their goal is to replace us by playing by different rules like currency devaluation, cheap labor with their massive work force, and no enviromental restictions like we have here in America . I think this dream of exporting our way out of this mess is really just a dream. It hasn't happened yet and thats why we are in this mess today because the world ran out of money. We have lost industry after industry in this country because we failed to realize the importance of protecting consumers from being dependant on other nations like we are today for clothing. Food is a precious commodity lets not lose that too. Consumers have an interest in this plan and they want local food that maintains US Food soverienty, Foods safty and security. These are all slowly slipping away with the status quo and that trend must be managed. If farmers get new signals like getting 5% of there milk price reduced that would be better than having it all reduced. With S.889 the second signal in extreeme oversupply situations targets ALL FARM SIZES that are practicing poor management decisions of over supplying what the market doesn't demand. Exempted are new farmers for their first year and farmers that have undue hardship like weather disaters. They will get the same pricing signal of a reduced price on all extra milk just like we have today. The signals with S.889 are still there. We are just giving the surplus away without crushing our entire milk price. This could be exported or given away to our own people. This is no different than dumping 5 % of our milk down the drain. Instead it is an organized milk product give away program. S.889 doesn't limit expantion at all and there is no quota to buy. If you are a smart businessman and expand when the market demands milk you increase your base. The base is not permently active like the Holstein plan. It is a temporarily active base with S.889 only used when there is extreme oversupply. I just came back from Washington today. With 3 days notice over 200 farmers 4 bus loads from 3-4 states showed up for the hearings in Washington. Herd sizes ranged from 30-2000 cows. The silent majority is coming alive finally and Washington is listening. We had very productive meetings they know the CME with few trades a day is not a market. They know about the unballanced profit and transfer of wealth from rural america . They know consumers want local food. I have a S.889 powerpoint for any one interested. Email usdairyfarmers@yahoo.com for info on up to date political information on the grassroots movement.

Adam Smith
Jul 30, 2009 If we let ourselves be subjected to a supply program, we will lose our drive for ingenuity and efficiency . The only we can compete with with imported dairy and hope to export is by being super efficient in order to fight off cheap labor and supplies used by foreign producers. Don't allow us to make a mistake that will kill all future dairying in America in order to amke a fast buck today. Let the market dictate who survives.

Bryan Gotham
Jul 30, 2009 Blind free market extreemist can not see that the market is free for everyone involved but for the dairyman. Dairyman are jailed with a corrupt thinly traded price discovery. The only thing we are free to do is recklessly expand out neighbors out of business. Imports are adding to volitility today. Our price was more stable before 1996 with the current system. Commercial disappearances has exceeded farm milk production every year since 1996. In 2000 the all milk price was $12.32 when farmers produced 1.57 billion pounds less milk than the commercial disappearances indicate. Just three years later in 2003 the all milk price was $12.52 and the commercial disappearances exceeded production by 4.3 billion pounds. The media harps on supply and demand problems for milk but farms are systematically being replaced by concentrated imports. In todays world we have an import export challange not a supply and demand challange. This challenge is also highly stacked against the American Dairyman. This so called free market is imprizoning us with loses. Lets start managing profit instead of managing loses. New Price discovery with Supply Mangement that curbs import abuse with incentive is the way to go. S.889.

eugene smith
Jul 29, 2009 I believe that we need some type of a management for the supply it should also control the imports. If it is a mandated control you should be able to sell that qouta and not give so much control to the FSA as to what you do with the qouta

john barsch
Jul 29, 2009 no supply management...if I needed that I would move to Canada . I do like the cwt program and think that should be used with more participation and national coordination. I would not want to be western dairymen right now either, the CA political system is badly broken and thier debt is so high that its hard to see business thriving. No golden state anymore.

Bill Stanley
Jul 29, 2009 I do not believe that supply management is the answer. Market forces are powerful factors that need not be tampered with. Its hard to implement supply management now when some have the sixe and scale that is efficient. I think the small producer will eventually lose in the long run if supply management is initiated.

Philip DePue
Jul 29, 2009 We have the ability to control supply, but unfortunatly those dicisions are in the hands of the VERY incompitent leaders at Dfa and other jerks running coops. They control 80% of our milk now and all they care about is themselves.Corrupt they are!!

Rob Hunt
Jul 29, 2009 I support the program, as I understand it, proposed by HFAA. I also believe the dairy industry needs to take a hard look at advertising.The amount of money that goes to DMI is not affected by sales, it is a factor per cwt.Therefore, DMI's revenues are not effected by poor advertising nor is the income or job security of the person responsible for ad design. The milk mustach ads on the back of Newsweek or Better Homes and Gardens doesn't really hit the target of the age group that it is intended for.

George Mueller, Clifton Spr., NY
Jul 28, 2009 It gets kind of lonely advocating letting the marketplace decide who will produce our nation's milk. (The dedicated, skillful, and frugal dairy farmer.)I appreciate the comments by my good friend, Steve Patzos, that our industry should be kept open to all and that no one needs to guarantee us a living.A dairyman, named Bary, also had some excellent comments about the way our milk markets under our capitalistic system should work. Bary presented an interesting theory that increased imports when prices are high lessen severe peaks, as does less imports when prices are low lessen the low priced valleys. Thus according to Barry, imports help give us some much needed price stability in our industry. Bary, I would love to discuss imports with you if you have time.

Kirt Sloan
Jul 28, 2009 Supply management needs to be tied to monitoring the quality of the milk supply both ours and imports which will always be here. The field must be level and SCC standards must be improved. Anything over 300,000 should be calf milk to, put it bluntly. We need to raise standards and to raise the bar on quality. Low cost models eventually lead to low quality products that the consumer will reject....the China Syndrome. Let's do a better job on our end and demand full disclosure in milk marketing, futures markets, and import standards. Head to head we have nothing to fear...fair trade is much more important than free trade. Transparency is key!

JIM
Jul 28, 2009 SUPPLY MANGEMENT IS THE ONLY WAY OUR DAIRY PROBLEM CAN BE FIXED. LOOK TO THE NORTH & SOUTH IT IS WORKING. IT'S ONLY A TOOL TO LET A PRODUCER MAKE A DECISION ON THEIR IN PUTS TO DETERMIN A PROFIT OR LOSS. BORROWING MORE MONEY TO STAY IN BUSINESS IS NOT THE ANSWER,NOR DOES CWT OR DUMPING IT. CONTROL OF PRODUCTION BEFORE MAKES MORE SENSE!!!!

Matt F
Jul 28, 2009 I am not completely against Supply Management, but if we do a farmer organized Supply program we will not be able to keep prices up because imports will be cheaper. If we get the government involved we will also have problems. As far as SCC goes this will only be a one time help, people will not milk less cows but instead will manage the cows to lower scc and many results show that the higher the scc the lower the production, so if the majority of produces with scc over 400,000 reduce them below that mark they will end up making more milk.

Dave
Jul 28, 2009 I would like to see components raised and SCC lowered rather than have the government involved more in the price of milk.Also CWT takes out cows but the penalty for returning to milking is minimal. Maybe they need to have a stiffer penalty if they return to milking withing 3 to 5 years.

tim
Jul 26, 2009 I agree with lowering scc. A so called oversupply is an opportunity to improve quality. If supply and demand are truley going to work, the price formula should use retail prices to set farmgate price. If the processers/retailers can't move product for a profit they buy less milk and producers only get paid for the percentage of product moving. We need to end the incentives that cause loads of milk and cream to pass each other on the highway going to the same plants they were shipped from, manipulating the pools. We need to get all imports classified and counted. That said, the reality is nothing will get done without producer consences. So at the very least a growth mngt plan (not a quota)would be better. Milk prices may be turning and those that survive will say this system worked. We should be very careful not to let this opportunity get away without doing something to help the dairy industry long term. We don't have to eliminate each other to be successful.

Bryan Gotham
Jul 24, 2009 Today we have supply control but its called Chaotic supply control. We all know the thinly traded CME is flawed and we have to get away from that form of corrupt price discovery. The thinly traded CME is also the leader for the worlds price. If we go with organized not chaotic supply management it has to deal with imports. CWT is a form of supply management and that has obviosly failed because it doesn't deal with imports. The Growth management plan or Holstein plan will have the same fate. We must maintain diversity in this industry for food and national security and thats why all farm sizes are important. Diversity buffers disasters. Having all the cows in the profitable desert sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The only plan that gets rid of the CME and takes care of imports is the Milk Market Improvement act of 2009 Bill S.889. It reballances profit by giving us a stable milk price based on our cost of production. A fair stable milk price get rid of Asymetric Pricing which is predatory on the farmer and consumer. Just read about the record profits by processors today if you don't believe it is not happening. There is a demand for a stable price on consumers therefore the farmer must have a stable price. Imports are taking care of by the Farmer Funded guaranteed market for processors. It is an incentive to reduce imports in times of oversupply so the oversupply is not extended. It reballances the responsibility of the oversupply caused by concentrated imports between the processor and farmer. Also, this buffers the systymatic take over of our farms by imports. If you don't think this is happening check out the difference between milk production and commercial disapearance it is growing. This Supply Control system is two teired so the base is only used as a last resort. I call it a Temporarly Active Base. We need to start thinking like retail stores that control their inventory. We must produce what the market demands and give away the rest to school lunch and other food programs. We must adapt to Globalism or we not have a home grown food supply in this country. To me that would be like letting China run our military.

Mike Hutjens
Jul 24, 2009 One alternative is to eliminate Johnes infected cows which addresses two important issues: surplus milk and milk quality.

Dave Fitch
Jul 24, 2009 supply managment is a good thing as long as supply managment is in there also. Everyone should look at Spector-Casey Bill #889. It is the best thing out there. DAIRY MEETING IN WEST WINFIELD, NY AUG. 14, 09, 1:00 p.m. all invited to talk about solutions to the dairy problem.

John V
Jul 24, 2009 Good post Roger, Many smaller farms have stuck their heads in the sand not updating their management. They don't realize how much lower the costs are of larger farms. Small farms think it is all bulk purchasing and volume premium. Wrong. Much of it is labor efficiency, feed efficiency, capital investment efficiency. It is true for conventional or grazing

Roger W. Meads D.V.M.
Jul 24, 2009 Dairying is one of the fastest changing technical industries in the U.S. The use of new technology is being applied in Dairy Business Centers (Large Dairy Farms), which is lowering cost of production, better knowledge of health of herd and individual cows and more profitability. Dairy Business Centers are using this new technology, which most smaller dairy farms do not understand, and can not affort to implement. Cow comfort is so far advanced at DBC over smaller opperations. No one is complaining about the exit of small pharmacys, grocery stores and hardware stores from small towns. Why be concerned about exit of small farms. Most small farm are in the mortuary waiting for a place in the cemetery to be burried. (Cost of production and quality of product)

John V
Jul 24, 2009

People, there is too much cheese and butter in inventory. That has to go down for milk price to go up. To do that production has to go down by cows sold or farms sold out. Cost of production pricing or higher support pricing will only slow the rate the supply drops and end up keeping milk price low longer.

Miles A. Conklin
Jul 23, 2009 It is 30 years too late for supply management. Lower the scc limit to 250,000.

Doug Waterman
Jul 23, 2009 Yes we need to control the oversupply of milk to take the volatility out of the market and a supply management system could help. The biggest advantage I see with supply management in the Canadian markets is the control over the processors. You see records earning by processors when producers are loosing money. A better way to control milk would be to address quality issues...lower the SCC to 400,000 and enforce it. In addition, cull Johnes positive cows and compensate with an indemnity payment. Cull cows with lameness score of 4 and 5 to improve animal welfare. This improves the dairy industries image, milk quality and a method to control milk volume independent of size.

kevin
Jul 23, 2009 Everything has a quota. Well, except farm products. Toyota only builds so many cars. Real estate agents and morticians (to name a few) have to go thru an apprenticeship to even get in. If a company is hiring people, it only has so many vacancies. It can't hire anyone that comes in the door. We are doing ourselves a disservice to no manage our product. To not manage anything is crazy.

Eddie Schaap
Jul 23, 2009 The Dairy Industry needs a goverment support price based on prodution cost with a better pricing structure and the Dairy Industry needs to take care of supply mgt on its own with more industry participation. CWT has worked and with 70% support. I would rather have that than the Goverment any time. CWT has helped retired dairymen and those that want to exit the bussiness. CWT today is easing the pain, and helping producers go out of bussines that realy would rather stay in bussiness or are being forced out by their bank. CWT needs some new creative ideas on how to reduce milk without forcing dairyman out of bussiness unless that is the choice the producer wants. There are producers that own more than one dairy farm or are willing to reduce output and participate. I dont think continuing to squeese dairymen out of bussiness in the US is good idea. I am in favor of the support price as a safty net, however today its a little to low. After $20 milk I never thought the price could go back to support. That demostrates that with out a support price processors would just let the market go as low as it wants to go and in the long run the whole dairy industry looses. The goverment won't loose on support, they need products for their programs and move product back in the market when demand comes back. As long as support is not to high and based on some kind of industry cost of production. It needs to be a safty net that does not guarentee profit. Dairymen should not have to bear a $5.00 lose to hit it either. Industry needs stability with risk and competition.

Paul Dersam
Jul 23, 2009 80% of the US milk comes from 20% of the farms. This is not good or bad, just a fact of life. It is much easier to expand cow numbers on larger farms because the numbers of replacement heifers born is huge compared to smaller operations. I would prefer to see dairy used to fight world hunger than mandatory curtailment of production. However we cannot sit by and watch all our good dairymen go broke which is taking place under current conditions. I can tolerate the concept of supply management so long as policies written governing it are flexible and quickly responsive to market needs.

John D.E.Roberts
Jul 23, 2009 A properly constructed supply management program, where we produce what the market needs, including export and adequate growth, would be a good thing. Well managed dairy farms would benefit and be able to long term plan with security. Support of producers and gevernment would be necassary.

Jerry Spielman
Jul 23, 2009 If we change the snf inour milkwe sell to 8.75 instead of 8.25 we could milk 9.3 million cows and have a better product to sell our consumer. Problem solved.

Dave Brutscher
Jul 23, 2009 Well, I guess we don't plan to quit. For our operation, we are milking 10% fewer cows than three months ago and producing more milk. The cows seem to like the extra room and all the heifers we have coming in as a result of sexed semen are producing better than the cows we culled, so go figure. We can continue culling 4-5% of the herd every month and stay on the same track. If this is the state of the industry, where do we go?

Tom Kasper
Jul 23, 2009 We have a program right now !!! It's the CWT program. But only 2/3 of the milk is putting in the 10 cents. Dairy farmers can not get over the idea that it cost money to fix the over supply. No such thing as a free ride. Too much milk, then you have to remove the cows. 5th grade economics!

Stephen Patsos
Jul 23, 2009 I tried to vote in your online poll but got sent several time to a cannot find server page. It seems to me that when prices are down there is a cry for some supply management, but never when prices are high. There are plenty of other methods available to individual dairymen to mitigate risk. Also, all are provided the right to pursue their dairy career (happiness) in this country. No one is guaranteed success. As it should be.

CTD
Jul 23, 2009 Supply management would have only caused dairies to close last year instead of this year due to the rapid acceleration of input costs. Supply cannot be managed without managing input costs. Do we want to have everything managed for us?

BRIAN HOEFLER
Jul 22, 2009 SEXED SEMEN WILL CHANGE OUR INDUSTRY FOREVER WITH OUT A SUPPLY MANAGENT PLAN 50 PERCENT OF US WILL BE BROKE IN 2 YEARS.

Byron Krueger
Jul 21, 2009 Dairy farmers need help very soon or else many will be forced to exit the industry. There needs to be some program that can be implemented as soon as possible. I feel all dairymen need to cut back 5% on their production immediately. This can be accomplished easily by just cutting back on protein supplements. We need to inform processors that the milk supply is under our control. The co-ops could help us in implementing this program if they wanted to.

Dale Mummert
Jul 20, 2009 We need a supply mangment plan. The technology we have to produce milk is faster than the marketing that we use. Calf huts, tmr, bst, and sex semen have help us produce more milk but what good is it if we don't have a way to market it. There needs to be a balance. The banks and lending institutions need to wake up or they will lose alot of their investments. I'll close with, every time someone expands 1000 cows either ten 100 cow herds need to exit or the market needs to expand.