Posted: January 19, 2010 at 7:51 pm
By News Editor
In conjunction with the National Milk Producers Federation, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has announced a donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist in the aid and recovery effort in Haiti.
“This is a time for the U.S. dairy producer community to step up to the plate and help, in a coordinated way, to address an enormous humanitarian crisis close to home,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT. “Dairy producers have given generously in the past to help with other international and domestic relief efforts. In this tragic situation, a cash donation to the Red Cross is the most effect and expeditious method to help people in Haiti.”
CWT is making a cash contribution to the Red Cross’s specific Haiti relief fund to best assist the people of that nation. Kozak said that CWT’s monetary contribution will be used to provide dairy products and other foods, along with water, fuel, medicine, shelter, or whatever services are most critically needed.
Haiti is one of dozens of countries that has, in the past, been a commercial market for U.S. dairy products sold through CWT’s Export Assistance program. CWT urges cooperatives not participating in CWT, along with individual dairy farmers not involved in the organization, to consider contributing to the Red Cross Haitian relief efforts.
Cooperatives contributing to CWT include the following organizations. More than 500 individual dairy farmers also support CWT with their membership contribution:
Agri-Mark Inc., Arkansas Dairy Cooperative Association, California Dairies Inc., Conesus Milk Producers Cooperative, Continental Dairy Products, Inc., Cooperative Milk Producers Association, Inc., Cortland Bulk Milk Producers Cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America, Dairylea Cooperative Inc., Empire Keystone Cooperative, Farmers Cooperative Creamery, Foremost Farms USA, Jefferson Bulk Milk Cooperative, Just Jersey Cooperative, Inc., Land O’ Lakes, Inc., Lone Star Milk Producers, Lowville Producers Dairy Cooperative Inc., Manitowoc Milk Producers Cooperative, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, Massachusetts Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Inc., Michigan Milk Producers Association, Mount Joy Farmers Cooperative Association, National Farmers Organization, Northwest Dairy Association, Oneida-Madison Milk Producers Cooperative, Preble Cooperative, St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, Inc., Schoharie County Cooperative Dairies, Select Milk Producers, Inc., Snake River Dairyman Association Inc., South New Berlin Milk Cooperative, Inc., United Dairy Cooperative Services, Inc., United Dairymen of Arizona, Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc., Western Tier Milk Producers Cooperative, and Zia Milk Producers.
Source: National Milk Producers Federation
Posted: November 19, 2009 at 9:34 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has reported the results of an independent study showing that the program has generated a return on investment of $1.54 per hundredweight so far in 2009.
That evaluation was released by Dr. Scott Brown of the University of Missouri, a nationally-known farm policy expert who is regularly called on by the U.S. Congress to assess agricultural economic issues. Brown evaluated the impact of CWT’s two completed herd retirements in 2009, along with the lingering effect of the two conducted in 2008, as well as the herd retirement in 2007. He also noted positive contributions to price because of the bred heifer option that CWT has offered in recent years, along with CWT’s Export Assistance program, which while dormant this year, was active in 2007 and 2008.
Brown’s analysis showed that the combined effect of CWT’s cow-removal programs, as well as its export assistance program, helped raise farm-level milk prices by $1.54 per hundredweight this year, and added $2.4 billion to farm-level milk receipts in a year when dairy income is expected to shrink by more than $10 billion because of the global recession.
The program has produced an average return of $0.67/cwt. since 2004, Brown reported. CWT has been funded by a 10 cents/cwt. membership fee since 2007; prior to that, membership was 5 cents/cwt.
Brown noted that his estimate of the 2009 CWT impact will likely change again, since CWT is in the middle of executing its third herd retirement of 2009. This current round is in the middle of removing an additional 26,000 cows, but the final results of that effort have yet to be tallied. Brown said that each herd retirement has an impact that lasts several years, and that the two herd retirements of 2008, and the three this year, will continue to produce significant gains for farmers into 2010.
Source: Cooperatives Working Together (CWT)
Posted: October 27, 2009 at 4:00 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) announced that it has tentatively accepted 154 bids in the fourth herd retirement it has conducted in the last 12 months. The 26,412 cows and 517 million pounds of milk accepted in this round, combined with CWT’s three previous herd retirements since December 2008, equal a total reduction of milk production capacity of five billion pounds.
“Coming into 2009, CWT’s economists estimated that we would need to remove between five and six billion pounds of milk, the production of approximately 250,000 cows, through herd retirements,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, which administers CWT. “We are pleased that the participation in this third herd retirement of 2009 has brought us to our goal of aligning supply with demand, and hastening the recovery of farm-level milk prices that plunged because of the global recession.”
CWT member farmers in 33 states submitted a total of 168 herd retirement bids during the two-week bidding period which ended October 15th. This is the ninth herd retirement in the past six years of CWT’s existence, and featured a maximum acceptable bid threshold of $5.25 per cwt., the same price ceiling as in the retirement conducted in August.
“We felt it was important to help milk prices continue to strengthen by conducting another herd retirement as soon as we completed farms audits for the previous round one in the summer,” noted Kozak. He said in addition to the 26,000 cows, 465 bred heifers were also accepted this week.
As with the two most recent herd retirements in 2009, producers whose bids are accepted in this herd retirement will be paid in two installments: 90% of the amount bid times the producer’s 12 months of milk production when it is verified that that all cows have gone to slaughter, and the remaining 10% plus interest at the end of 12 months following the farm audit, provided both the producer and his dairy facility – whether owned or leased – do not become involved in the commercial production and marketing of milk during that period.
Cooperatives Working Together is being funded by dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers, who are contributing 10 cents per hundredweight assessment on their milk production through December 2010.
Posted: October 1, 2009 at 5:37 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together is implementing its third herd retirement in 2009, effective October 1, 2009. All bids submitted must be postmarked no later than October 15, 2009. This is the fourth herd retirement that CWT has conducted in the past 12 months.
“The herd retirement of late 2008, plus the two herd retirements so far in 2009, have removed 226,000 cows from the nation’s dairy herds,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, which manages Cooperatives Working Together. “Those efforts have helped adjust the supply of milk more in line with demand. This third herd retirement of 2009, along with a stabilizing global economy, should further accelerate the recovery in dairy farmers’ prices.”
As with past herd retirements, producers wishing to submit bids into the program must have been members of CWT, either through their membership in a CWT member cooperative or as an individual, effective January 2009. Producers whose bids were selected in previous herd retirements will not be eligible to bid again. This round will once again include a bred heifer option.
The maximum bid CWT will consider is $5.25 per hundredweight of milk, which was the same bid ceiling as the previous round. CWT will select bids beginning with the lowest bid with consistent milk production. However, given budgetary considerations, there is no guarantee that every producer submitting a bid up to the maximum $5.25 bid level will be accepted, cautions Jim Tillison, CWT’s Chief Operating Officer.
As with the two previous herd retirements of 2009, producers whose bids are accepted in this herd retirement will be paid in two installments: 90% of the amount bid times the producer’s 12 months of milk production (from September 1, 2008, through August 31, 2009) when it is verified that all cows have gone to processing plants. The remaining 10% plus interest will be paid at the end of 12 months if neither the producer nor the dairy facility – whether owned or leased – go back into in the commercial production and marketing of milk during that period.
Once the bid selection process is completed, farm audits should begin the first week of November and be completed by early December.
Posted: September 26, 2009 at 11:29 am
By News Editor
Farm audits for the second herd retirement implemented by Cooperatives Working Together in 2009 have been completed, and the majority of the 74,114 cows that produced 1.5 billion pounds of milk have been sent to processing plants. In addition, 2,958 bred heifers also were removed through CWT’s eighth herd retirement round.
In this most recent round, CWT removed 274 herds in 38 states. When combined with the herd retirements completed last winter and earlier this spring, CWT has removed 225,783 cows that produced 4.5 billion pounds of milk. In addition, the nearly 3,000 bred heifers taken in this herd retirement bring the total removed by CWT in the past nine months to 5,016.
CWT received 312 bids from dairies in 39 states during the bidding process in July, which offered a set maximum acceptable bid price. As a result of the selection and auditing process CWT follows, along with some withdrawals by bidders, the final number of bids processed totaled 274, down 20 from the initial tentative tally.
“In recognition of the severity of the financial crisis in the dairy industry, CWT auditors moved quickly to audit the selected farms, completing their task in just 30 days,” said Jim Tillison, Chief Operating Officer of CWT. “The national dairy herd is 230,000 cows smaller this fall because of CWT’s actions since this winter.”
Total:
274 – Total Farms;
74,113 – Total Cows Retired;
2,958 – Total Heifers Retired:
270 – Average Herd Size;
1.523 billion pounds – Total Milk Removed;
20,884 pounds – Average Production per Cow;
100% – Percentage of Dairies;
100% – Percentage of Milk Removed;
100% – Percentage of Cows Removed.
The totals for each region in the Summer 2009 herd retirement round include:
(more…)
Posted: August 5, 2009 at 8:19 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together announced today that it has tentatively accepted 294 bids in the third herd retirement it has conducted in the last nine months. The 86,710 cows and 1.8 billion pounds of milk accepted in this round, combined with CWT’s previous two herd retirements, equal a total production capacity of 4.8 billion pounds of milk being removed since December 2008.
This is the second-largest herd retirement since the farmer-funded self-help program started in 2003. The previous retirement round completed in July removed a record 101,000 cows and 1.96 billion pounds of milk.
“These two summer 2009 herd retirements, combined with the USDA’s recent price support increases, should result in very positive movement in dairy farmers’ milk prices,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which administers CWT.
Farmers in 38 states submitted a total of 312 herd retirement bids last month to CWT. This eighth CWT herd retirement in the past six years was also the first to feature a maximum acceptable bid threshold of $5.25 per cwt. It was also the quickest herd retirement following a previous round, which is an indication “that there is still an interest on the part of our members to use CWT to remove more cows, even though the program has been very active in 2008 and to date in 2009,” noted Kozak. This round is removing 3,104 bred heifers.
Starting next week, CWT field auditors will begin visiting the 294 farms whose bids were accepted, checking their milk production records, inspecting their herds, and tagging each cow for processing. All farmers will be notified no later than August 31, as to whether their bid was among those accepted.
Posted: July 10, 2009 at 4:51 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together has announced that it will conduct its second herd retirement of 2009. In order to have a more immediate impact, CWT is shortening the time frame for producers to submit bids. A maximum bid level is also being announced for this round.
“With the ongoing financial pressure on dairy farmers, and because the vast majority of farmers are familiar with CWT’s Herd Retirement program and how it works, we shortened the bidding window to two weeks,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT. “To expedite and simplify the bidding process, CWT will consider bids up to, but not to exceed $5.25 per hundredweight. However, there is no guarantee that a producer who bids at the maximum level will be selected.” Producers must still bid on a per hundredweight basis, and CWT will continue to review and accept bids beginning from the lowest bids received and moving up toward the maximum level.
“Carrying out a second herd retirement right on the heels of the largest-ever herd retirement should give us a double-barreled attack on milk production in a very short period of time, resulting in a farm level price recovery several months sooner than would otherwise occur,” Kozak said.
As has been the case in recent herd retirements, in addition to submitting bids for their milk herds, participating farmers will have the option of offering all of their bred heifers, at a flat price of $700 per animal.
With this eighth herd retirement, CWT is reinstating the rule that members of CWT whose herds were retired in any of the seven previous herd retirement rounds are not allowed to bid again.
Producers whose bids are accepted in this herd retirement will be paid in two installments; 90% of the amount bid times the producer’s 12 months of milk production when it is verified that all cows have gone to slaughter and the remaining 10% plus interest at the end of 12 months following the farm audit IF both the producer and his dairy facility – whether owned or leased – do not become involved in the commercial production and marketing of milk during that period.
Finally, producers whose bids are accepted in this herd retirement and then choose to opt out will not be eligible to bid in future herd retirements.
Bids must be postmarked July 24th. Bid selection will take place shortly after that and the farm auditing process will begin as soon as the bid selection process is completed, noted Jim Tillison, Chief Operating Officer of CWT. All dairy producers submitting bids must be members of CWT effective January 2009, either through their membership in a fully participating cooperative, or as an independent member of CWT.
Detailed information, including bid forms, an interactive bid calculator to help estimate a farmer’s bid, and answers to frequently-asked questions can be found at online, or by calling 888-Info-CWT (888-463-6298).
Posted: July 2, 2009 at 4:03 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has now finished the farm audits of its seventh herd retirement round since the program was started in 2003, removing 101,040 cows that produced almost two billion pounds of milk.
At the completion of the on-farm auditing process at the end of June, CWT removed 367 herds in 41 states, comprised of nearly 101,000 cows that produced 1.96 million pounds of milk. These figures reflect the final number of dairies that successfully were audited in the herd retirement process in May and June.
CWT had received 538 bids from 41 states during the bidding process in April. As has been the case with its previous herd retirement rounds, most of the cows removed were in the western regions of the country. This round also removed 818 bred heifers.
“Even though this was by far the largest of CWT’s seven herd retirement efforts, we were able to move quickly in May and June to audit the participating farms,” said Jim Tillison, Chief Operating Officer of CWT. “The national dairy herd will be noticeably smaller this summer as a result of CWT.”
CWT auditors were sent to each of the farms whose bids were accepted. Once the information submitted by the farmers with their bid was verified, each of the cows had a special CWT ear tag applied, and the farmers were a brief amount of time to sell their cows for processing. Once the sales receipts for the animals are verified and ear tags are returned to CWT by the processing plants, farmers are issued payment, and their names are posted online.
Tillison said some farmers’ names have yet to be posted online from this seventh round, but will be in coming weeks as they are sent their payments. He added that additional CWT herd reduction activities are likely in 2009, given the depressed state of milk prices and the continuing imbalance between supply and demand.
The totals for each region in the Spring 2009 herd retirement round include:
Northeast: 41-Total Farms Audited; 5,121-Total Cows Retired; 104.3 million pounds-Total Milk Removed
Southeast: 52-Total Farms Audited; 6,400-Total Cows Retired; 107.2 million pounds-Total Milk Removed
Midwest: 125-Total Farms Audited; 8,153-Total Cows Retired; 147.3 million pounds-Total Milk Removed
Southwest: 63-Total Farms Audited; 43,121-Total Cows Retired; 844.4 million pounds-Total Milk Removed
West: 86-Total Farms Audited; 38,245-Total Cows Retired; 759.9 million pounds-Total Milk Removed
Total: 367-Total Farms Audited; 101,040-Total Cows Retired; 1.96 billion pounds-Total Milk Removed
Posted: May 13, 2009 at 6:36 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) announced today that it has tentatively accepted 388 bids representing 102,898 cows and 2 billion pounds of milk production capacity in the first of a series of herd retirements planned over the next twelve months. The number of cows and pounds of milk represent the largest single herd retirement carried out in the six year history of CWT.
Dairy farmers in 41 states submitted a total of 538 herd retirement bids by the May 1 deadline. The 388 bids tentatively accepted represent 72 percent of the total bids received by CWT. The number of cows now scheduled to be removed account for 64 percent of the total number of cows offered and the 2 billion pounds of milk account for 67 percent of the milk production offered.
“The high percentage of bids CWT selected this time around is an indication that producers understood that CWT would only be able to accept reasonable bids per hundred pounds of milk in order to adjust the nation’s dairy herd and better align supply and demand,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), which administers CWT.
Starting next week, CWT field auditors will begin visiting the 388 farms whose bids were accepted, checking their milk production records, inspecting their herds, and tagging each cow for processing. All farms should be audited by early July and cows should begin moving off dairies by late May. All bidders will be notified no later than June 12, 2009, as to whether their bid was among those accepted.
“The bids selected ranged from farms with fewer than 50 cows to dairies with over 5,000, demonstrating that farms of all sizes in all areas are facing a very difficult year in 2009,” Kozak said. “Those that took advantage of CWT’s offer to retire their herds will aid others still wanting to farm by reducing the amount of milk coming to market and strengthening prices going forward.”
“CWT, thanks to the commitment of 36 cooperative members and over 500 individual dairy farmer members, has the resources to carry out additional herd retirements in the coming months. That is why CWT will not announce the average level of the bids accepted until all the herd retirements are completed,” Kozak noted. “We will continue to monitor key economic indicators in order to determine the right time to implement the next herd retirement.”
Producers whose bids are accepted in this herd retirement will be paid in two installments: 90% of the amount bid times the producer’s 12 months of milk production when it is verified that that all cows have gone to slaughter, and the remaining 10% plus interest at the end of 12 months following the farm audit, if both the producer and his dairy facility – whether owned or leased – do not become involved in the commercial production and marketing of milk during that period.
Posted: May 11, 2009 at 6:37 pm
By News Editor
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), in response to the ongoing severe economic challenges facing the dairy producer community, will create a special strategic task force to examine those challenges and suggest possible solutions, NMPF announced today. The NMPF Strategic Planning Task Force will be appointed at the June 10 NMPF Board meeting, with the goal of having an initial meeting shortly thereafter.
The task force will be led by NMPF’s members, but will reach out to other dairy producer organizations that are not members of the Federation, including those organizations that participate in the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program. The purpose of the task force is to build consensus across the dairy industry about both the nature of the causes affecting producer prices, and ways the industry can realistically work to address the price crunch.
“Dairy farmers from coast to coast are looking for ideas that can help them not only weather the current economic storm, but also bring less volatility to dairy prices in the years ahead,” said Randy Mooney, Chairman of NMPF and a dairy farmer from Rogersville, MO. “Our new task force will allow for open discussion and a dialogue with others, with the goal of achieving a common understanding of how to best tackle the twin problems of low milk prices and high input costs.”
The agenda for the strategic planning task force will include an examination of how CWT’s role might change in helping manage dairy supply; consideration of methods to create incentives to stimulate the domestic production of new products, such as casein; expanding on the success of the CWT export assistance to create new markets for U.S. milk; and an assessment of methods to implement production controls on U.S. dairy producers.
The task force will also examine the effectiveness of current government dairy safety net programs, such as the Milk Income Loss Contract program and the dairy product price support program, both of which were revised in the 2008 Farm Bill.
“This new task force will allow for a structured means of reviewing our options, both for improving demand as well as managing supply, and help move us towards workable solutions both now and in the future,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “There’s no shortage right now of concepts for new self-help programs, or ideas for what Congress and the Administration ought to be doing. If we’re to be effective, however, we need detailed discussions about practical options that the entire dairy producer community can support,” he said.
Posted: April 17, 2009 at 4:58 pm
By News Editor
Interest from dairy farmers in Cooperatives Working Together’s seventh herd retirement round is high, and farmers who are members of CWT have two weeks left during which to submit their bids, CWT said Thursday.
Detailed information can be found online, including bid forms, the interactive bid calculator to help estimate a farmer’s bid, and answers to frequently-asked questions. All bids must be postmarked by Friday, May 1st, in order to be considered. For more information, call 888-Info-CWT (888-463-6298).
“More than 1,600 people have used the online bid calculator to help them consider how much to bid in this round,” said Jim Tillison, Chief Operating Officer of CWT.
Tillison said an analysis of web traffic on CWT’s site indicates that the majority of the visits are coming from major dairy states, led by California, and including Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York and Texas.
“We know the pain of low milk prices combined with high production costs is a national phenomenon, and we are expecting a significant number of bids from across the country,” he noted. All bids must be postmarked by Friday, May 1st. A review of all the bids will occur in the third week of May, and audits of successful bidders’ farms will start in the following week, Tillison said.
All bidders will be notified whether or not their bid has been accepted no later than June 19, 2009.
All dairy producers submitting bids to sell their herds must be members of CWT effective January 2009, either through their membership in a fully participating cooperative, or as an independent member of CWT.
Posted: April 1, 2009 at 6:00 pm
By News Editor
In light of the perilous financial plight affecting America’s dairy farmers, Cooperatives Working Together (CWR) has announced it will conduct its latest herd retirement round. Bids are being accepted starting today through Friday, May 1st.
Detailed information can be found online, including bid forms, an interactive bid calculator to help estimate a farmer’s bid, and answers to frequently-asked questions. All bids must be postmarked by Friday, May 1st, in order to be considered. All dairy producers submitting bids to sell their herds must be members of CWT effective January 2009, either through their membership in a fully participating cooperative, or as an independent member of CWT. For more information, call 888-Info-CWT (888-463-6298).
“We all recognize that 2009 is shaping up to be among the toughest years on record for dairy farmers, but CWT will help shorten the price plunge farmers are facing, and speed the recovery,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT.
This is the seventh herd retirement round since CWT began operations in the summer of 2003.
Kozak said that, given the dramatic downturn in dairy economics in the past six months, CWT is anticipating a large number of bids. However, since the value of cows and heifers has dropped dramatically, the price level of bids accepted will be much lower than in recent years. As has been the case in recent herd retirement rounds, Kozak said CWT has no set target for the volume of milk or the number of cows to be removed in this round.
“Whether CWT will remove a significant number of dairy animals will depend on the number of bids received and the price level of those bids. CWT will not pay more for cows than what they are currently worth in the marketplace.”
As was the case in 2008, in addition to submitting bids for their milk herds, participating farmers will have the option of offering all of their bred heifers, at a flat price of $700 per animal. In addition, there are two program rule changes in this round:
1. Members of CWT whose bids were accepted in a previous round may bid again in this round. This is a one-time exception to the exclusion affecting prior participants in the program;
2. Producers whose bids are accepted in the next and future herd retirements will be paid in two installments: 90% of the amount bid times the producer’s 12 months of milk production when it is verified that that all cows have gone to slaughter, and the remaining 10% plus interest at the end of 12 months following the farm audit, IF both the producer and his dairy facility – whether owned or leased – do not become involved in the commercial production and marketing of milk during that period.
Posted: February 17, 2009 at 9:14 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has finished the farm audits of its sixth herd retirement round since the program was started in 2003, removing 50,630 cows that produced almost one billion pounds of milk.
At the completion of the on-farm auditing process earlier this month, CWT removed 186 herds in 33 states, comprised of nearly 51,000 cows that produced 976 million pounds of milk. These figures reflect the final number of dairies that successfully were audited in the herd retirement process in December, January and early February.
CWT had received 471 bids from 40 states during the bidding process last fall. As has been the case with its previous herd retirement rounds, most of the cows removed were in the western regions of the country. This round also removed 1,240 bred heifers.
The totals for each region* in the 2008-2 round include:
Northeast: 43.7 million pounds of milk; 22 farms accepted; 2,295 number of cows; 25 bred heifers; $6.47 average bid/cwt
Southeast: 65.4 million pounds of milk; 28 farms accepted; 3,750 number of cows; 58 bred heifers; $6.48 average bid
Midwest: 64.4 million pounds of milk; 48 farms accepted; 3,290 number of cows; 39 bred heifers; $6.20 average bid
Southwest: 304.6 million pounds of milk; 39 farms accepted; 17,522 number of cows; 763 bred heifers; $6.36 average bid
West: 497.9 million pounds of milk; 49 farms accepted; 23,773 number of cows; 459 bred heifers; $6.87 average bid
TOTALS: 976 million pounds of milk; 186 farms accepted; 50,630 number of cows; 1,240 bred heifers; $6.49** average bid
* Note that bids are grouped by region for comparative purposes, even though regional volume safeguards were eliminated in 2008.
** Represents a simple average of all 186 bids, not the average of the five regional averages.
Posted: February 12, 2009 at 6:09 pm
By News Editor
The members of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) voted Tuesday to fund the self-help program for two full years, from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2010, to help bring the dairy supply into balance with shrinking demand.
The decision to fund CWT for another two years is predicated on achieving the participation of a 67% supermajority of the nation’s milk supply at the current 10 cent per hundredweight membership assessment, said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT.
CWT’s members also approved two changes in program policy. First, all members whose bids are accepted in future herd retirement programs will agree and warrant to cease dairy production for one year. This warranty will apply to both the producer and his/her dairy facility.
The second change is that farmers who were successful participants in past CWT herd retirement rounds will be permitted to bid in the next herd retirement round that CWT conducts.
Kozak noted that CWT has not solicited government financial assistance. He indicated that a prominent agricultural lender will provide CWT a line of credit tied to the level of funding that CWT members are committing to invest in the organization over the next two years.
“I can only say that we will use the financial resources our members provide us to achieve the most bang for the buck. Given where milk prices are compared to the cost of production, I believe we are in a position to remove a significant amount of oversupply in the future, but we will continue to be careful stewards with our resources. We are not going to squander money to meet someone else’s arbitrary expectations of what CWT should do,” Kozak said.
Posted: December 26, 2008 at 5:19 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) announced that it has tentatively accepted 184 bids in its second herd retirement of 2008. Those bids represent 61,078 cows and 1.2 billion pounds of milk. In addition, CWT has accepted bids for 1,548 bred heifers in this herd-retirement program.
Together, CWT’s two herd retirements this year account for 85,663 cows that produced 1.637 billion pounds of milk, along with another 2 billion pounds, milk equivalent, that CWT’s Export Assistance program has removed from the market.
Farmers in 40 states submitted a total of 471 herd-retirement bids in late November to CWT, reflecting “the continuing financial stress that many farmers are facing as milk prices plunge below the cost of production,” said Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of NMPF, which administers CWT. Kozak noted that although the costs of dairy feed and diesel fuel have dropped, milk prices have fallen faster.
CWT field auditors will begin visiting the 184 farms whose bids were accepted, checking their milk production records, inspecting their herds, and tagging each cow for processing. All farmers will be notified no later than Jan. 12, 2009, as to whether their bid was among those accepted in this herd-retirement round, the sixth one that CWT has conducted since 2003.
Once CWT field auditors inspect and accept the herds offered as part of the bidding process, farmers have 15 days in which to send their animals to a processing plant. CWT will again provide each farmer the NMPF animal-handling guidelines for the proper culling and transporting of dairy cattle, Kozak said.
Jim Tillison, chief operating officer of CWT, said that further bid information, including the average price of accepted bids, won’t be released until all the on-farm visits have been completed. The total number of bids initially accepted by this round includes:
Northeast: 63.6 million pounds of milk; 23 farms accepted; 3,117 number of cows
Southeast: 65.2 million pounds of milk; 27 farms accepted; 3,741 number of cows
Midwest: 63.6 million pounds of milk; 47 farms accepted; 3,224 number of cows
Southwest: 295.6 million pounds of milk; 38 farms accepted; 17,106 number of cows
West: 718.3 million pounds of milk; 49 farms accepted; 33,890 number of cows
Totals: 1,206.30 million pounds of milk; 184 farms accepted; 61,078 number of cows
Posted: December 22, 2008 at 7:17 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has announced their updated export bids for the past week.
Three of the bids were from Dairy Farmers of America of Kansas City, Mo.: one for the sale of 18 metric tons (39,683 lbs.) of anhydrous milkfat to Panama, and the other for separate sales of whole milk powder to Mexico, in the amounts of 150 metric tons (330,693 lbs.) and 20 metric tons (44,092 lbs.).
Three of the bids were from California Dairies Inc. of Artesia, Calif., for the sales of butter: 12 tons to China (26,455 lbs.), and two separate sales to Japan in the amounts of 10 metric tons (22,046 lbs.) and 9.8 metric tons (21,605 lbs.).
One bid was accepted from Humboldt Creamery of Fortuna, Calif., for the export of 20 metric tons (44,092 lbs.) of whole milk powder to Georgia.
Finally, one bid was accepted from Land O’Lakes of Arden Hills, Minn., for the export of 18 metric tons (39,683 lbs.) of butter to Iran.
With these accepted bids, CWT’s total 2008 export obligations are: butter, 21,913 metric tons (48.3 million lbs.); cheese, 1,501 metric tons (3.3 million lbs.); whole milk powder, 1,238 metric tons (2.7 million lbs.); and anhydrous milkfat, 11,411 metric tons (25.2 million lbs.). The butter
total is adjusted to reflect a recently-cancelled order of 3,471 metric tons.
2008 has been the most successful year in CWT’s five-year history, in assisting members to export over 84 million pounds of cheese, butter, AMF and whole milk powder to 30 countries in every part of the world.
Posted: December 17, 2008 at 5:55 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together(CWT) has received commitments from its members that they will continue to fund the program in 2009, CWT officials said today.
“Now more than ever, CWT is the only answer to the question of what can farmers do to positively impact their milk price,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT. “Both world and U.S. dairy markets are sagging and things look tough for 2009. Our members recognize that this program is the best way to help balance supply and demand and positively impact producers’ bottom line.”
CWT is currently in the process of removing 184 herds, with 61,000 cows that produced 1.2 billion pounds of milk, through its second herd retirement of 2008. CWT’s first herd retirement of the year removed 25,000 cows that produced 430 million pounds of milk. In addition, its export assistance program has helped members sell overseas the equivalent of more than two billion pounds of milk in 2008.
“With the continued investment individual producers and cooperatives are making, CWT will have the financial resources to remove more cows, and export more products, that will help battle the decline in dairy prices in 2009,” Kozak said.
An independent economic analysis of CWT, conducted this fall by Dr. Scott Brown of the University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, demonstrated that farmers’ return of investment in CWT has been 76 cents per hundredweight. Moreover, Brown’s analysis showed that the return farmers enjoy grows as the program develops over time.
Posted: December 15, 2008 at 7:23 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together(CWT) has announced their updated export bids for the past week.
One bid was from California Dairies Inc. of Artesia, Calf., for the export of 400 metric tons
(881,849 pounds) of anhydrous milkfat to Mexico.
One bid was accepted from Humboldt Creamery of Fortuna, Calif., for the export of 300 metric
tons (661,387 lbs.) of whole milk powder to Cameroon – the first time a CWT-assisted export
has gone to that nation.
Finally, two bids were accepted from Darigold of Seattle, Wash., for the export of 25 metric tons
(55,116 lbs.) of butter to Kuwait, and another 25 metric tons of butter to Indonesia.
With these accepted bids, CWT’s total 2008 export obligations are: butter, 25,604 metric tons
(56 million lbs.); cheese, 1,501 metric tons (3.3 million lbs.); whole milk powder, 1,048 metric
tons (2.3 million lbs.); and anhydrous milkfat, 11,393 metric tons (25 million lbs.). The milk
equivalent total of these products is 2.03 billion pounds.
Posted: December 8, 2008 at 6:48 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has announced their updated export bids for the past week.
Two of the bids accepted were from Dairy Farmers of America of Kansas City, Mo. One was for 300 metric tons (661,387 pounds) of anhydrous milkfat to South Korea. The second was 20 metric tons (44,092 lbs.) of whole milk powder to Honduras.
Two bids were accepted from Land O’Lakes of Arden Hills, Minn. One was for the export of 216 metric tons (476,199 lbs.) of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese to South Korea. Another was for 36 metric tons (79,366 lbs.) of butter to China.
And finally, the fifth bid was accepted from Upstate Niagara Cooperative of Buffalo, N.Y., for the export of 19 metric tons (41,888 lbs.) of butter to Syria. This is the first bid CWT has accepted from Upstate Niagara.
With these accepted bids, CWT’s total 2008 export obligations are: butter, 25,554 metric tons (56 million lbs.); cheese, 1,501 metric tons (3.3 million lbs.); whole milk powder, 748 metric tons (1.6 million lbs.); and anhydrous milkfat, 10,993 metric tons (24 million lbs.). The milk equivalent total of these products is 2 billion pounds.
Posted: December 1, 2008 at 9:06 pm
By News Editor
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has announced their updated export bids for the past week.
All four bids were accepted from Dairy Farmers of America of Kansas City, Mo. One was for
the export of 72 metric tons (158,733 lbs.) of butter to Mexico. Another was for 60 metric tons
(132,277 lbs.) of whole milk powder to Mexico. And two bids were accepted for exports of
anhydrous milkfat: 126 metric tons (277,782 lbs.) to Panama and 108 metric tons (238,099 lbs.)
to Mexico.
CWT will pay an export bonus to the bidders, only when delivery of the product is verified by
the submission of the required documentation. In addition, a previously-accepted bid for 900
metric tons (1.98 million lbs.) of whole milk powder was cancelled.
With these accepted bids, CWT’s total 2008 export obligations are: butter, 25,499 metric tons
(56.2 million lbs.); cheese, 1,285 metric tons (2.8 million lbs.); whole milk powder, 748 metric
tons (1.6 million lbs.); and anhydrous milkfat, 10,711 metric tons (23.6 million lbs.). The milk
equivalent total of these products is 1.96 billion pounds.
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