Smith speaks up at milk coop meeting

New dairy policy action coalition created

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — Dairy farmer Brian Smith, who is also the chairman of the Wayne County Commissioners and was recently elected to the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) board by his fellow dairy farmers, publicly expressed his opposition to a statement made by the president Rick Smith at the DFA board meeting last month.

“When the president said that he was in agreement that $16 per hundredweight was a fair price that dairy farmers should accept, I couldn’t remain silent,” Smith said. “No dairy farmer can run a decent business getting only $16 per hundredweight for his milk,” Smith told the DFA president and the board members. “In actuality, we are getting something like $12 per hundredweight. We should not be satisfied until we get a lot more.”

Smith quoted a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that computed the total overhead costs of production for dairy farmers in 23 states. In Pennsylvania, the total cost of production for dairies was $25.90 per hundredweight. “And that figure is from the USDA, not from a protesting dairy organization,” Smith said. “Compare that with the $16 per hundred income the DFA calls fair and the real income of about $12 per hundredweight that farmers have to live with most of the time and you can see how dire our situation is.”

Smith is a supporter of a recently formed coalition that is working to change the milk pricing system that regulates the price dairy farmers get for the milk they produce. The Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC), which was started four months ago, has charter members of dairy farmers in 16 milk–producing counties in Pennsylvania and some in Ohio. The group is urging membership to other milk-producing states like New York, California and Wisconsin. DPAC is an action-driven group that is focused on drastically changing what they call an unfair dairy pricing system.

The group has formed action groups for policy development in preparation for the new 2012 Farm Bill hearings that begin in 2010.

Smith has long contended that the top echelon of the milk business is the group getting the larger profits, while the farmers who produce the milk get a pittance. “No one can live on or develop a business on a pittance,” Smith said.

Smith openly campaigned on this disparity and got elected because it hit home to many dairy farmers in the region. “Dairy farmers cannot compete on the world market because of the cheap milk that is imported from foreign countries,” he said.

The pricing system that prevails now and has prevailed for many decades has to be completely revamped, he said. One of the main reasons why the present system persists is that dairy farmers are not militant and don’t speak up, Smith said.

“That has to change,” he said. “The coop takes up a survey of dairy farmers from time to time. In the last survey, only 10 to 15 percent of farmers answered the survey. If they don’t speak up and take responsibility, nothing is going to happen.”