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Cooperative leader says FMMO referendum is not the end of the battle
The leader of a dairy cooperative says efforts to improve conditions for dairy farmers doesn’t end with the referendum on federal milk marketing order reforms.
Tim Trotter with Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative tells Brownfield the USDA’s final rule for the federal milk marketing orders isn’t perfect. “Obviously, we felt we needed a lot more for Federal Order #30. We’re going to be very short in Federal Order #30 for the reforms we need but again, in totality, we’re going to recommend to our membership to give it a strong consideration.”
Trotter says Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative is not done pushing for needed changes in dairy policy, including potential additions to the next farm bill. “If you’re depooled and unprotected by the federal order, you could be at risk for timely payments and also having third-party verification, so we’re going to go through the farm bill to get that codified so the farmers, whether they’re in the order or not, they’re going to have those basic protections.”
Trotter says he expects Edge will also advance additional proposals for change in the federal milk marketing orders. “We think every order should have a little more flexibility in how they innovate and how they make their federal orders more relevent because depooled milk doesn’t help the order, but in the upper Midwest, the majority of our utilization is cheese and manufacturing, so when you think about it, if you don’t have a lot of fluid milk utilization, how to you keep it afloat?”
Farmers and cooperatives in eleven U.S. regions are voting this month on whether to accept USDA’s proposed changes to the federal milk marketing orders or have no marketing order at all.
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