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NFO proposes new dairy policy

NFO director of dairy sales Dick Bylsma

The National Farmers Organization is proposing a new federal dairy policy that it says will help keep more family dairy farmers in business.

NFO director of dairy sales Dick Bylsma says their structured management program would level the playing field between small and large dairy farmers.

“It would change the way we allocate the money collected for the dairy milk we sell now, “Bylsma says. “We’re reallocating it to the farmers to address the difference in costs between a smaller farmer and a large dairy farmer.”

Bylsma says overcoming the production cost imbalance among dairy farms will require a higher pay price for milk produced on smaller farms. NFO proposes a two-tiered pricing mechanism that would be run through the federal milk marketing order.

“It would pay every dairy farmer in America a four dollar premium—maybe more, maybe less—for the first tier of milk he produces,” he says. “Every dairy farmer would receive a four dollar premium on the first million pounds of his production. We then redistribute the money that’s in the existing pools to the remaining dairy farmers.

“We know that there’s going to be some opposition to it, because very large farmers will get a little bit less for their milk. But it evens the playing field.”

NFO unveiled its proposal at its recent convention in Iowa.

AUDIO: Dick Bylsma

  • I appreciate any effort to address Milk prices… I don’t want to milk 500 cows.. my 49 are it… the farmers that made the decision to milk large amounts of cows have done so voluntarily… I milk 49 voluntarily… we All just want to survive

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