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WI Farmers Union President disappointed in Task Force pooling vote

A member of Wisconsin’s Governor-appointed Dairy Task Force is disappointed in the group’s vote on a proposal that would have required mandatory pooling of milk and better pay to producers.  Darin Von Ruden, who is the state’s Farmers Union President says farmers want the system changed, but it might not happen through the task force.  “They want change, and so who’s going to be the leader of that?  Is it going to be Wisconsin? Is it going to be another state or is it going to be farmers themselves?  You know, it’s leaning more and more like it’s going to have to be the farmers themselves doing that movement.”

The recommendation authored by the National Farmers Organization called for mandatory milk pooling, with producers getting a four dollar per hundredweight price adjuster on the first million pounds of milk, with the remaining pool value evenly distributed across all milk in the pool.  The vote was seven for, 14 against, with five abstaining.

The Dairy Task Force narrowly passed a separate recommendation calling for mandatory milk pooling of all milk across a federal milk market area.  That passed with nine in favor, eight against, and nine abstaining.  Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association President John Umhoefer spoke against mandatory pooling, saying cheesemakers spent years working against that concept in the federal orders.

The Dairy Task Force overwhelmingly supported asking for federal approval to reduce the number of milk classes from four to two, with milk for pourable and spoonable products in a new Class One, and all other products in Class Two. (22-0-4)

The group voted on 52 recommendations Friday.  The NFO proposal and a recommendation to adopt California’s fluid milk standards were the only two that failed.