A Lot of Interest in CWT’s Latest Herd Removal Program
There is a lot of interest in the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program’s latest herd removal effort. CWT Chief Operating Officer, Jim Tillison, reported in Thursday’s DairyLine that “Things are pretty rough out there and, even though feed costs are down, it looks like milk prices are beating them down so there’s a lot of interest in the herd retirement program.”
He’s often asked how many cows will be removed this time and his reply is, “As many cows as people give us good bids for.” He pointed out that the farmer’s CWT money is spent as frugally as possible as “We don’t want to pay people too much for the cows they’re retiring but we want to get as much bang for the buck as possible.”
The deadline for submitting bids is Monday, November 24. Bids must be postmarked by that day and Tillison quickly added that, “Just because you put them in your mailbox outside your dairy, doesn’t mean that the post office is going to get them postmarked on that day so send the bids in as soon as possible,” and he again emphasized that the CWT hopes to remove a good number of cows but it all depends on the quality of the bids.
The CWT committee announced 17 export assistance bids this week. Tillison said the export business, especially on butterfat, is very strong right now. He reported that, so far the CWT has assisted in the exported over 84 million pounds of dairy products, the equivalent of almost 2 billion pounds of milk, “So it’s a very important factor in the CWT program and, going forward, could become even more important.”
The CWT Committee approved $60 million for export assistance next year because they realize the value of growing the market. Dairy farmers would rather produce milk than retire cows, he concluded, and “That’s what the export assistance is all about, building markets overseas for U.S. dairy products.”