Union Policy
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DFU
This
web page is dedicated to the plight of the dairy farmer. By
education maybe we can inform the public of the
farmers plight. By action maybe we can help the plight of
the dairy farmer. This web page is dedicated to helping the US dairy farmer.
The
present situation of the dairy farmer is terrible. I do not know
how we have singled out these individuals in our system to be in the
plight that they are now in. A dairy farmer works 60-110 hours a
week and has nothing to show for it. They never get a vacation.
There is not enough money to pay someone to work for them so they can
take time off. I know of one farmer whose only vacation came
when he got married and went on his honeymoon. All the money they
make is taken away by the expenses of the farm. They are not even
eligible for welfare because the income is high, but the expenses are
higher. The land they try to hold on to is mortgaged so high that they
can barely afford the payments. They sell their product for
wholesale and pay for everything retail. They have to keep
working to save the farm, hoping someday the milk prices will get
better. They continue to work the farm when they are losing
money. They can’t stop working, otherwise the lender will
foreclose and they lose everything.
Dairy
farmers have created some of the rural landscape of America.
Thirty years ago there existed a rural economy supported by the
dairy farms.
Now the dairy farms are in crisis and the rural economy is nearly
non
existence. The DFU is a organization trying to bring
back profitability and substainability to the dairy farmer.
The federal milk marketing order is a total corruption of the intent of the federal order. The intent of the federal order was to provide a fair and profitable milk price to the farmer knowing that the dairy system is a monopoly system controlled by the milk processors. The present system uses a complex set of variables tied to elements within the dairy processing market such as the prices of: whey, cheese, butter, butterfat and distance to market. These are all aspects of the dairy processor industry. None of the elements in the federal order have anything to do with the dairy farmer. The federal order set a minimum price for different classes of milk. It turns out that all these minimum prices are what the farmers received, never higher than these prices. If the intent of the federal order was to protect the farmer, the federal order would have the elements of the farmer’s profitablty in them such as: price of fuel, cost of feed, price of corn, seed cost, the average value of land and the CPI but it contains none of these elements. All the elements in the equation for the Federal order can all be controlled by the marketing of the dairy processors. These equations were developed by the dairy processor for the dairy processor never by a farmer. How can an equation which was supposed to protect the farmers allow for the price of milk to go below the cost of production, this should never happen. The Secretary for the Department of Agriculture has the power to correct the federal order pricing but he does nothing, totally knowing that the farmer is not getting the money that it costs to produce the milk. I would call the federal order a legalized system that allows the dairy processors to steal milk from the farmer, with the blessing of the Dept of Agriculture. There is no way now to fix the present Federal order because the dairy processors control it. I believe we should set minimum prices of milk for the farmer based on his input costs and profitability. We do need more farmer control of the milk supply to make a balanced supply and demand system. A union could increase milk prices, control milk supplies and also allow the farmer to reduce herd size but increase overall farm profitability.
One of the issues is that the consumer is not going to like for the farmer to get more profits is the retail price of milk must increase. What has been happening over the years is that the processors and the government have been holding down the retail price of milk. This is part of the government cheap food policy. As an example consider this: The milk price to the farmer in 1980 was $15/100. If you use the CPI and equate this milk price to 2009 the resulting milk price would be $42/100. If the farmer could get 50 percent of the retail price of milk, the in store price would be around $7/gal. If the farmer get less than 50% of the retail price say 25% which is now the percentage the price would be $13.80/gal. From this example you can see the retail price in the store could drastically change from $2.50 a gallon to maybe $6-10/gal. Consumer are not going to like these kinds of increases, and to get these kinds of increases for the farmer a DFU is needed to force this kind of change. The consumer is not going to volunteer for these type of increases, just to save the farmer.
If you are a dairy farmer and tired of low milk prices you need to investigate how the dairy farmers union can help you. One of the goals of the DFU will be to get the minimum federal order milk price up to at least $25/100. Last year's average milk price was $11.32/100 and this year maybe as high as $16/100. This means for two years in a row you will lose money. How can you as a dairy farmer keep going and lose money. It is time to fight for a better milk prices and a Dairy Farmers Union (DFU) is what is needed.
The federal milk marketing order is a total corruption of the intent of the federal order. The intent of the federal order was to provide a fair and profitable milk price to the farmer knowing that the dairy system is a monopoly system controlled by the milk processors. The present system uses a complex set of variables tied to elements within the dairy processing market such as the prices of: whey, cheese, butter, butterfat and distance to market. These are all aspects of the dairy processor industry. None of the elements in the federal order have anything to do with the dairy farmer. The federal order set a minimum price for different classes of milk. It turns out that all these minimum prices are what the farmers received, never higher than these prices. If the intent of the federal order was to protect the farmer, the federal order would have the elements of the farmer’s profitablty in them such as: price of fuel, cost of feed, price of corn, seed cost, the average value of land and the CPI but it contains none of these elements. All the elements in the equation for the Federal order can all be controlled by the marketing of the dairy processors. These equations were developed by the dairy processor for the dairy processor never by a farmer. How can an equation which was supposed to protect the farmers allow for the price of milk to go below the cost of production, this should never happen. The Secretary for the Department of Agriculture has the power to correct the federal order pricing but he does nothing, totally knowing that the farmer is not getting the money that it costs to produce the milk. I would call the federal order a legalized system that allows the dairy processors to steal milk from the farmer, with the blessing of the Dept of Agriculture. There is no way now to fix the present Federal order because the dairy processors control it. I believe we should set minimum prices of milk for the farmer based on his input costs and profitability. We do need more farmer control of the milk supply to make a balanced supply and demand system. A union could increase milk prices, control milk supplies and also allow the farmer to reduce herd size but increase overall farm profitability.
One of the issues is that the consumer is not going to like for the farmer to get more profits is the retail price of milk must increase. What has been happening over the years is that the processors and the government have been holding down the retail price of milk. This is part of the government cheap food policy. As an example consider this: The milk price to the farmer in 1980 was $15/100. If you use the CPI and equate this milk price to 2009 the resulting milk price would be $42/100. If the farmer could get 50 percent of the retail price of milk, the in store price would be around $7/gal. If the farmer get less than 50% of the retail price say 25% which is now the percentage the price would be $13.80/gal. From this example you can see the retail price in the store could drastically change from $2.50 a gallon to maybe $6-10/gal. Consumer are not going to like these kinds of increases, and to get these kinds of increases for the farmer a DFU is needed to force this kind of change. The consumer is not going to volunteer for these type of increases, just to save the farmer.
If you are a dairy farmer and tired of low milk prices you need to investigate how the dairy farmers union can help you. One of the goals of the DFU will be to get the minimum federal order milk price up to at least $25/100. Last year's average milk price was $11.32/100 and this year maybe as high as $16/100. This means for two years in a row you will lose money. How can you as a dairy farmer keep going and lose money. It is time to fight for a better milk prices and a Dairy Farmers Union (DFU) is what is needed.
You
might be saying how can I handle being a member of the DFU when I have no time or extra
money. I would say how you can not afford to be in a union.
Last year (2009)farmers should have gotten a minimum of
$25/100. The typical farmer could have earned $2920 more per cow
per year if this was so. Use this number to see how much more money your farm could
have earned in 2009. Multiply $2920 times the number of
milking cows and you will see what you lost.
Dairy
farmers are 99.5% family farms and partnerships. The dairy
processors are large corporations with the primary goal to make
money for the shareholder and exectives. These corporations have
taken advantage of their milk
monopoly to control the price of milk to the dairy farmer with the help
of the government’s Federal milk order. The amount of money
that was taken from the farmer is an incredible sum. Based on the
average of 480 million lbs of milk per day and a $25/100 milk
price, the amount of
money that the US dairy farmers lost to the dairy processor was 24
Billion dollars in 2009. This number is 65.7 million dollars a
day. A number
this large should make you realize what is at stake, and why the dairy
processors do not want you to form a union.
Recently the government passed a bill called DELAP to give dairy farmer a one time payment of 290M. This payment will only cover the loss that a farmer had for 4 days, what about the other 361 days? The governemnt does not have the funding to support the dairy farmers. The money for the dairy farmer must come from the consumer who purchases milk. The dairy processor can then pass this money onto the dairy farmer. The only way the farmer can get more money is to force the dairy processors to pay more for the milk. The retail milk price is too low to provide additional monies to the farmer. Also the processor are taking higher percentage of the milk profit for themselves.
I a sorry to say that this is a war, no amount of begging will get the dairy processors to provide the money the farmer needs to prosper. The farmer must force the dairy processor to provide more money. The power to force the dairy processor to provide more money to the farmer is the power of the bulk tank. The dairy processor must have this milk to make the profits they desire. Without the farmers milk they have nothing.
Recently the government passed a bill called DELAP to give dairy farmer a one time payment of 290M. This payment will only cover the loss that a farmer had for 4 days, what about the other 361 days? The governemnt does not have the funding to support the dairy farmers. The money for the dairy farmer must come from the consumer who purchases milk. The dairy processor can then pass this money onto the dairy farmer. The only way the farmer can get more money is to force the dairy processors to pay more for the milk. The retail milk price is too low to provide additional monies to the farmer. Also the processor are taking higher percentage of the milk profit for themselves.
I a sorry to say that this is a war, no amount of begging will get the dairy processors to provide the money the farmer needs to prosper. The farmer must force the dairy processor to provide more money. The power to force the dairy processor to provide more money to the farmer is the power of the bulk tank. The dairy processor must have this milk to make the profits they desire. Without the farmers milk they have nothing.
We
are looking for volunteers and donations to help organize this union.
If you are a dairy farmer or just a person who wants to bring back the rural economy we need your help.
Contact: Rob Baum 802-277-4960 or rob@dairyfarmersunion.org for more information
Web site is still under construction
Addition pages coming soon