News

California dairy interests reach agreement

California dairy producers and cheese makers have agreed to ask the California Department of Food and Agriculture to temporarily increase the 4b price and whey value for six months. Under the deal cheese makers will pay an extra 46 cents per hundredweight for milk and expand the whey scale to $1.00 from the current cap of 75 cents. The CDFA says the changes will add 12.5 cents per hundred to all classes of milk.

The deal is being written into legislation which also directs the California Dairy Future Task Force, made up of producers and processors, to provide economic research materials and proposed structural changes to the California dairy pooling and pricing programs.

The California dairy industry has lost nearly 400 farms and more than $2 billion in the past five years as high feed prices and low milk prices pushed producers out of business.