FMMO Hearing Update: Recess Until Thanksgiving

After more than seven weeks of discussion, USDA’s Federal Milk Marketing Order hearing is on recess. AFBF Chief Economist Roger Cryan explained the issues being discussed during the hearings in a recent Newsline.
 
This includes “how big the margin should be that’s allowed to dairy plants between the milk price and the cheese and whey and the butter and powder prices so the plants are encouraged to take farmer’s milk but still give farmers a fair share,” Cryan explained. Another issue is changing the formula price for bottling milk so that the market pooling of those milk values is fair and more consistent to avoid some of the market chaos that farmers experienced in the middle of 2020. “Farm Bureau is getting deeply involved in federal milk orders really for the first time in a long time to fix some of these things,” Cryan said.