Suits Filed to Stop Milk Marking Reforms

September 27, 1999

At least three suits have been filed in federal courts to stop the implementation of USDA's final rule on milk marketing orders, scheduled for Friday (Oct. 1). The suits especially seek to stop the milk pricing option many producers oppose.

One suit was filed by Dairy Farmers of America and two other marketing organizations that represent dairy farmers in Texas and New Mexico, and two others were filed by dairy farmer organizations in the Southeast and Northeast.

The suits seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against USDA's implementation of the final rule on marketing orders. Even though dairy farmers overwhelmingly approved the final order, many say they did so because the only option would have been to eliminate all government support of dairy production.

"We continue to hope that Congress will legislate changes to the final rule that remove the most negative aspects of the decision," says DFA Board Chairman Herman Brubaker. But with the deadline to implement the order now only days away, it is less likely that Congress will have time to act, Brubaker adds. "We also seek to extend the dairy price support program another year (through 2000), and we are pushing for the continuation and expansion of the Northeast Dairy Compact as well as authorization of the Southern Dairy Compact." The Clinton Administration supports extending the price support program.

DFA's Southwest Area Council Chairman Calvin Buchanan says Class I (fluid) milk prices to southwestern dairy farmers would be as much as $1.20 per hundredweight lower if the final decision was implemented without change.