Ag Groups Ask USDA to Delay August Milk Vote Deadline

July 28,1999

More than a dozen national and regional farm organizations have asked USDA to delay the Aug. referendum deadline for voting on reforms to the federal milk marketing order system. Producers haven't had enough time to assess what they will be voting on, the groups say.

"The provisions of the federal order program that producers must vote on next month are significantly different than those that were first presented to them in 1998 when USDA asked the dairy industry to review two different options for reform of the program," explains Jerry Kozak, CEO, National Milk Producers Federation, one of the groups writing agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. "After asking producers to review those two options, USDA is now telling them that they must either accept or reject a third, very different option that wasn't even on the table last year."

Implementation of federal order reforms must be done by Oct. 1. Dairy producers in each of the 11 regions of the country must vote on the final rule. If the terms of the rule are not supported by two-thirds of the producers in a given order, that order will not be regulated by the federal order system and essentially become a free market.

In January 1998, USDA said it was considering Options 1A and 1B and requested comments on those proposals. Except for one region, producers supported Option 1A.. In the final rule, however, USDA proposed a third option "that could be characterized as a modified option 1B," said Kozak. "Dairy producers never saw or had an opportunity to comment on this significantly different option prior to publication."

In a letter to Glickman, the groups said, "As was the case with option 1B, many producers and cooperatives have serious concerns with the provisions of the final rule on the class I pricing structure. Because you did not provide for the receipt of any additional comments on the provisions of the final rule before its issuance, producers and their cooperatives have not had an opportunity to challenge this proposal except for the more undesirable choice of no federal orders at all."

Congress also is considering legislation that would mandate the 1A option that most analysts say will provide higher milk prices for farmers. According to NMPF, because the legislative process is moving at a slower pace than the process of implementing the final USDA proposal, congressional action may not come until after producers have voted by Aug. 6 on the final rule.