More on Federal Milk Marketing Order

Continued Coverage on Federal Milk Hearing in Clovis

More on Federal Milk Marketing Order: Let the Market Sort it Out

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

Bill Verboort is the General Manager for AgriTech Analytics (ATA), a national company based in Visalia Calif. Owned by the Holstein Association USA, AgriTech is part of the U.S. Dairy Herd Improvement Association System, and provides data to dairy producers for management, genetic improvement and pedigree purposes. Verboort has been attending the USDA Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearing in Clovis, Calif., which is gathering testimony from milk industry people who want, or do not want to abandon the California Milk Marketing Order and adopt the FMMO.

“I think it is a very historic day, because I think California is one of the only major markets outside the FMMO,” said Verboort. “When the Federal system came in the 1930s, there were good reasons for us to be on a state order due to geographic isolation, etc. Today, I don’t see us as geographically isolated as we once were. So why not be part of the FMMO?”

Verboort noted that the FMMO should put California producers on par with the rest of the country when it comes to milk and cheese prices. “That is the intended and anticipated effect,” he said.

Of course there are many against adopting the FMMO. “Some are saying if the California producer is going to get more money for his milk, he is going to produce more,” said Verboort. “If you look at the industry over decades, when the price of milk has gone up, producers have produced more. You’ve got to make hay when the sun shines, so to speak. And when prices are down, the cash flows are down, so a producer needs to get more cash. What is the solution to that? Produce more milk!”

“So the California producers are going to produce more milk whether the FMMO system is in place or not; at least that’s the way I see it,” Verboort explained. “But if our producers in California are at a disadvantage to producers in other parts of the country, we need to make an equitable situation here.”

“And the market will shake it out. It is as simple as that,” he said. “We can produce milk products more efficiently in California and I think that is good for the U.S. and for the consumer. If the producer can produce it here more efficiently by getting on the right strategy with the FMMO rather than the California milk order, then we are on the right track.”

“California producers have been on the short end of the stick for a long time,” Verboort said. “Even though last year was a very good year for most producers throughout the country, and for California producers as well, they still sold their milk for several dollars per hundred weight less than the rest of the country,” Verboort said.

As for the hearing taking place in Clovis, Verboort said it seems that the momentum is going in a good direction. “But we will find out; that is what these hearings are about,” he added.

AgriTech Analytics (ATA) is a certified Dairy Records Processing Center.

Part of the U.S. DHIA System, AgriTech Analytics provides data to dairy producers for management, genetic improvement and pedigree purposes.

By utilizing the reports and herd analysis made available by AgriTech Analytics, Herd owners are able to maximize profitability and better position themselves in today’s competitive dairy industry.

________________________________________

Links:

AgriTech Analytics

U.S. Dairy Herd Improvement Association System

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:07-07:00October 14th, 2015|

Outlook on California Poultry

Bill Mattos: Outlook for California Poultry Industry

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

California’s poultry industry has a positive outlook for the coming year despite the recent outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza plaguing the rest of the nation’s poultry industry. Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, said the coming year will see chicken overtaking beef.

“We’re learning from a lot of economists that we are going to have an exciting year for poultry next year and into the future,” Mattos said. “It looks like chicken is taking over beef next year, and all of poultry will be ahead of the red meats. We love our beef and pork friends, but we’re passing them. It looks like the healthfulness of chicken and the capacity to grow locally—everything in California—is looking good for the poultry industry. And we’re excited. We think the chicken and turkey industries will have a good year coming up.”

And although the price of corn is still higher in California versus nationally, Mattos said this industry is still doing well. “We still pay about a dollar or more a bushel for corn in California. But prices are outstanding compared to what they were two or three years ago, so our companies are making some money.”

With the flyways, or bird migration, coming back this fall, Mattos said the California poultry industry is prepared with increased biosecurity on their farms and ranches to prevent an avian influenza outbreak. Mattos said, “It’s very important that we make sure our companies are locking down their facilities—keeping visitors off and maintaining a biosecurity that’s first in the nation—because any type of bird flu that could invade here and spread would devastate the marketplace.”

____________________

California Poultry Federation

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:27:07-07:00October 9th, 2015|

Cornell Kasbergen On Federal Milk Marketing Order

Continued Coverage of Milk Hearing

Dairyman Cornell Kasbergen: We Need Federal Milk Marketing Order

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

Cornell Kasbergen, a dairyman in Tulare County, is fed up with the flawed California State Milk Marketing Order. So much so, that he and other dairymen and women have a great desire to switch to the Federal Marketing Order.

This idea is presently front-and-center in Clovis, CA as USDA officials are holding an historic hearing that may extend into early November.

“It started three to four years ago when our milk prices were dramatically less than those in the rest of the country, and we wanted to get our industry on a level playing field. It has been a lot of work getting the co-ops together, but we are just at the beginning of this whole process.”

Having the USDA here is, in itself, a big beginning,

Kasbergen has worked hard to drum up interest in the idea. “When I was a co-op board member at Land O’Lakes, Inc. [a national, farmer-owned food and agricultural cooperative milk cooperative], we worked with other dairy co-ops and their members to get educated. We discovered, for the last three to four years, California’s whey value in its milk pricing formula deviated from national prices, and California producers were losing money. Once we realized we were leaving a lot of money on the table—over a million dollars a day—it opened people’s eyes. That’s why we are having this hearing.”

“The California Department of Food and Agriculture intentionally left the state’s whey prices lower than the rest of the nation, and though we’ve been petitioning them over and over again to rectify the issue, they have failed,” said Kasbergen. “That’s why we have gone this route in getting our milk prices formulated by the federal government rather than by the state. Our state has really let us down.”

“The CDFA has taken hundreds of millions of dollars out of the dairy farmers’ pockets, the loss is killing the dairy industry in California,” said Kasbergen.

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:07-07:00October 9th, 2015|

Dairyman Xavier Avila on Federal Milk Marketing Order

Continued Federal Milk Marketing Order Hearing Coverage

Kings County Dairyman, Xavier Avila Worked Hard to Get Federal Milk Marketing Order on the Docket

By Laurie Greene, Editor

Xavier Avila, a dairyman in Kings County, is monitoring the USDA Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) Dairy Hearing in Clovis very closely. “Well, I was one of the ones who pushed for it five or six years ago. It’s kind of dear to me to get it done,” he said.

Avila explained, “As a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies, all my family members who were in the dairy business talked about how bad it was before the orders. Milk needs to be picked up everyday, so it it’s really easy to mess the market up if you don’t pick up a guys’ milk or threaten not to pick it up. So the California marketing order was established to bring order to California milk.”

Avila said the California marketing order worked for many years when dairies across the country were making the same amount of money per hundredweight. But prices are not equal now, and California dairy farmers are getting paid much less than those other parts of the country.

“We set up a solution on end-product pricing. Yet in California, the CDFA was not following the rules. If the rules had been followed, we wouldn’t have a need to go to the FMMO,” said Avila. “But CDFA just wouldn’t follow the rules regarding end-product pricing and the USDA does follow the rules; so it is just a simple matter of going with the people who are following the rules.”

“For the past ten years,” Avila said, “our whey prices have been much less than the national whey price, so the California dairy industry has lost billions of dollars.” “It’s really simple. There are six pounds of whey per every 100 pounds of milk. Basically for the last few years, whey was 60 cents/pound. Doing the math, 60 cents times 6 pounds; you come up with a total of $3.60 for the whey in each 100 pounds of milk. With the California Milk Marketing Order, we were paid just 25 cents towards that total and the plant kept the rest. The Federal order is basically the reverse; not quite, but almost the reverse.”

Avila is bullish on the California dairy industry’s conversion to a FMMO. “I think it’s going to happen. Nothing is for certain, but the industry is united. Milk is the same everywhere, and I think it is in California dairy farmers’ hands because we are going to vote on this. Whenever you produce the same product and earn far less for it, it is inevitable that something is going to happen.”

Avila noted it will take some time, “but I knew that from the start, it would not be quick and easy. We are looking at anywhere from one to two years,” Avila said, affirming his belief the California dairy industry can hang on for two years. “We’ve got not choice. Now with the drought, there are other crops you can do better with. Some dairy farmers will leave the business just because they have something better to do than milk cows. So we see this as saving the California dairy industry,” Avila said.

Click here to view Video of Xavier Avila, September 22, 2015.

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:08-07:00October 6th, 2015|

Historic Milk Pricing Hearing in Clovis

Historic Milk Pricing Hearing in Clovis:

Converting California to the Federal Milk Marketing Order

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

In Clovis last week, an historic USDA milk pricing hearing commenced to gather testimony from the California dairy industry, which for the most part, favors changing to the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO). This represents an abandonment of the state marketing order which has been harmful to dairies since it was altered 10 years ago to disallow dairies from getting paid the same price for their milk and whey products.

William Francis, director, USDA Order Formulation and Enforcement, is involved in the formal rule-making process for marketing orders. Francis commented, “There’s been tremendous interest in a federal order for California and we are holding a formal rule hearing for the promulgation of a California FMMO. This is an historic event. For years, the state has operated a program. But, farmers have gotten together and invited us to come in for the state’s hearing.”

The hearing could last as long as eight weeks to review each of four proposals. Francis noted, “We are here as long as it takes. We want to make sure we have a complete and accurate record so there are no time constraints,” He said the USDA will post a transcript on their website, filter through all of the documentation and make a recommendation.

A comment period with a sufficient amount of time will follow the public announcement of the USDA decision. “Then we will generate a modified final decision,” Francis said. “By the time we complete that process, farmers will have the opportunity to vote on the modified decision through a referendum process, which could be up to two years away.”

USDA Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO)

Industry Information Request postings

All of the proposals can be viewed at www.ams.usda.gov/CAOrder.

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:08-07:00October 2nd, 2015|

Ag in the Classroom

Teaching Ag in the Classroom

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

As the disconnect between consumers and the source of their food grows, many students do not understand where their food comes from. California teachers are doing their part to bridge the educational gap by teaching ag in the classroom.

Kathy Yager, a fifth grade teacher at Fowler Unified School District, as well as a farmer, brings agriculture education to her students in several ways. “We’ve been using programs through the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom,” Yager said.

“I’ve participated in Taste Test grants,” Yager said. The grant allows teachers to bring in a new ag product, “and the students get the opportunity to try those things.” Yager said it also helps expose students to new products, and allows them to become better informed consumers in the future.

“We also have visits from the Dairy Council of California and students get to see a dairy cow and how the whole milking process works,” Yager said.

In addition Yager brings farmers, including her own brother, into the classroom to educate students, “and [they] show students how agriculture works and how a product gets from the field, to the stores, and to them.”

California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (CFAIC)

More than 7 million California students are fed, clothed and housed with products grown right here on our farms, in our fields and within our forests. California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is dedicated to helping students and teachers across our great state gain an understanding of how agriculture provides the daily essentials necessary to make our society and our world function.

From the cotton in our jeans and the food on our tables, to our landscaped yards and playing fields, we all depend on agriculture. The survival of this vital industry depends on educating and encouraging the next generation of decision-makers. We do this by engaging students and educators in meaningful ways: developing and sharing unique classroom curriculum, supporting school garden efforts, spreading our message at local Ag Days, honoring outstanding educators, rewarding students who learn and write stories about agriculture and so much more.

Featured Programs:

Imagine this… Story Writing Contest

Meet Academic Content Standards for California schools through this creative writing contest!

Create a positive learning experience that promotes reading, writing and the arts, and furthers the understanding of agriculture in our lives by using this award-winning contest in your classroom.

PUBLISHED AUTHOR

State-winning authors will have their stories published in an illustrated book and will be distributed to school libraries and classrooms across the state!

DEADLINE: NOV. 1

Entries must be postmarked by November 1, annually.
Download entry form (PDF, 331 KB)

California Fruits and Vegetables Seasonal Chart (PDF, 18 KB)

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:09-07:00September 22nd, 2015|

E.A.T. Foundation – Connects Us to Ag

Kelly Deming Giacomazzi on the E.A.T. Foundation

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

There is a disconnect between consumers and an understanding of where their food originates. Kelly Deming Giacomazzi is the executive coordinator for the Education and Agriculture Together Foundation—better known as the E.A.T. Foundation—a Hanford-based nonprofit that bridges this disconnect by providing educators with hands-on learning tools to teaching their students how food and other agricultural products are produced.

“They teach their students that jeans don’t just come from Old Navy or Walmart,” Giacomazzi said, “and their daily food doesn’t come from the grocery store.”

Giacomazzi said the E.A.T. Foundation offers several workshops for educators, including a 3-day “Intro to Ag” program, during which educators from all over the state are hosted by local farm families. “This is where the hands-on learning takes place. For example, educators learn to drive a tractor, siphon-irrigate, spray for bugs with a Pest Control Advisor (PCA), and visit a dairy. In the past and occasionally now, we visit the UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center (VMTRC) and AgVentures! at the Heritage Complex, both of which are in Tulare County, to give teachers a brief overview of what agriculture is doing to provide food and clothes for people in the state and in the nation.”

Giacomazzi also said E.A.T. hosts a two-day workshop on water. “We tour a hydroelectric plant, a dam/reservoir area, and distribution centers,” Giacomazzi said. “We talk about water laws, environmental impacts, and farm efficiency as well.”

The Foundation also offers summer and fall harvest workshops, plus a career workshop. Giacomazzi stated, “Many scholarship funds are available for agriculture majors, yet there aren’t enough students majoring in this field.”

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:28:04-07:00September 15th, 2015|

No-tillage Grows in California

The list of crops that have been successfully grown using no-tillage in California continues to increase with garbanzo beans being the latest addition, according to Jeffrey P. Mitchell, CE cropping systems specialist, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Harvest data from the Conservation Tillage Workgroup are now in for a 2015 garbanzo crop that was no-till seeded in January in the longstanding conservation agriculture systems study field in Five Points, CA, and these data indicate no difference in yield between the no-till with and without cover crop treatments and the standard till with and without cover crop systems. Garbanzo yields for the four systems averaged about 3,600 lbs / acre with no statistical differences seen between the four experimental treatments.

Other than an herbicide spraying in the fall of 2014 to knock down weeds, the no-tillage systems relied on zero tillage prior to seeding that was done with a John Deere 1730 6-row 30” planter. Conventional tillage consisting of several passes of a Wilcox Performer bed-shaping tillage implement was done to prepare planting beds in the standard tillage plots as would be commonly done in the region.

There is now a growing list of several crops, including processing tomatoes, cotton and dairy forage that have been successfully produced, both in research studies and on California farms, with economically viable yields using no-tillage seeding.

Additional information about this study is available at the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center (CASI) website and by contacting Jeff Mitchell at jpmitchell@ucdavis.edu.

Established in 1998, the Conservation Cropping Systems Workgroup is a diverse group of more than 1,500 farmer, University of California, California State University, USDA – NRCS, Resource Conservation District, public agency, private sector and environmental group members that have come together to promote conservation cropping systems in California.

Featured Photo Soure: Source: CASI (Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation) Center, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:28:05-07:00September 2nd, 2015|

High Pricing Keeps Tulare County Ag #1

Tulare County Ag Tops all Counties

By Laurie Greene, Editor

The 2014 crop report from Tulare County indicates another record-setting year. Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County Ag Commissioner, noted how well the dairy industry did, “30% of our overall value was actually milk, so dairy is incredibly important to our county. They had some good prices for most of the year. That is what brought up the value of milk to $2.5 billion. It is a significant increase over the prior year. A little bit more yield, but it is the price that kicked up well over two billion dollars.”

Tulare County Ag sales topped $8 billion in 2014, and the dairy industry overcame significant pricing obstacles to contribute to the County’s success.

Kinoshita continued, “We’ve got several classes of milk, and California producers are at a disadvantage to the other folks in Wisconsin or Nebraska, or wherever milk is produced. California producers feel singled out. They have their own system by the Secretary of Ag, so they have lobbied to get some hearings to be put under the federal system of pricing. California is lower than the federal standard.”

Citrus sales also played an important role in setting the new sales record, she said, “They had a really good year and went up considerably. So there is our number three crop. We are the nation’s number one citrus county. When our growers are having a good year, it benefits the county. We have 71 citrus packing sheds in our county and all the major juicing plants in California are right here.”

Kinoshita also mentioned some of the ways that citrus has become the number three crop, “It is sort of supply and demand, and great marketing. We ship to 90 different countries around the world. A portion of our production is exported.”

In 2014, livestock in general was up 40%, which also made an impact on sales in Tulare County, “You’ll find when you go to a grocery store that steaks, chicken, and turkey all cost more. So all of our species had an increase in price per unit for this crop reporting year.”

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:28:06-07:00August 30th, 2015|

2014 Fresno County Crop Report Sets Record Production

2014 Fresno County Crop Report Sets Record Production — $7 billion+

Les Wright, Agricultural Commissioner/Sealer submitted the following information to Karen Ross, California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary, TODAY accompanied by the 2014 Fresno County Crop Report showing record production.

It is my pleasure to submit the 2014 Fresno County Agricultural Crop and Livestock Report. This report is produced in accordance with Sections 2272 and 2279 of the California Food and Agriculture Code, and summarizes the acreage, production, and value of Fresno County’s agricultural products. The figures contained herein represent gross returns to the producer, and do not reflect actual net profit.

Photo, from left, Ryan Jacobson, Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO, Les Wright, Fresno County Ag Commissioner and Richard Matoian, American Pistachio Growers Executive Director

This report is a testament to the resiliency and determination of the Fresno County agricultural industry. For the first time ever, the gross value of Fresno County agriculture exceeds seven billion dollars. Almonds remain the number one crop at a value of 1.3 billion dollars with grapes a close second at $905 million.

The total gross production value of Fresno County agricultural commodities in 2014 was $ 7,039,861,000, a 9.26 percent increase from the 2013 production value of $6,443,236,500.

Increases were seen in:

vegetable crops (0.47% = $5,599,000)
fruit and nut crops (13.16%= $422,664,000)
nursery products (46.89%= $20,022,000)
livestock and poultry (31.48% = $301,144,000)
livestock and poultry products (22.09% = $116,299,000
apiary (17.39% = $10,738,000)
industrial crops (107.05% = $3,795,500).

Decreases in:

field crops (-36.20%= -$149,822,000)
seed crops (-14.67%= -$5,823,000).

I would like to express my appreciation to the many producers, processors, and agencies, both private and public, who supported our efforts in producing this report. I would also like to thank all my staff, especially Fred Rinder, Scotti Walker, Angel Gibson, Vera Scott-Slater, and Billy Hopper. Without their hard work and valuable input this report would not be possible.

Pistachios, featured on the cover of the 2014 Fresno County Crop Report, were Fresno County’s seventh top crop last year, with a value of nearly $380 million dollars.

The top nut—and crop, for that matter—was almonds, followed by grapes, poultry, milk, cattle and calves, tomatoes, pistachios, garlic, peaches and cotton.

Also included in the report was this quote from President John F. Kennedy:

Our farmers deserve praise, not condemnation; and their efficiency should be cause for gratitude, not something for which they are penalized.

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:28:06-07:00August 25th, 2015|

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Continued Coverage on Federal Milk Hearing in Clovis

More on Federal Milk Marketing Order: Let the Market Sort it Out

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

Bill Mattos: Outlook for California Poultry Industry

Continued Coverage of Milk Hearing

Dairyman Cornell Kasbergen: We Need Federal Milk Marketing Order

Continued Federal Milk Marketing Order Hearing Coverage

Kings County Dairyman, Xavier Avila Worked Hard to Get Federal Milk Marketing Order on the Docket

Historic Milk Pricing Hearing in Clovis:

Converting California to the Federal Milk Marketing Order

Teaching Ag in the Classroom

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Featured Programs:

Meet Academic Content Standards for California schools through this creative writing contest!

Create a positive learning experience that promotes reading, writing and the arts, and furthers the understanding of agriculture in our lives by using this award-winning contest in your classroom.

PUBLISHED AUTHOR

State-winning authors will have their stories published in an illustrated book and will be distributed to school libraries and classrooms across the state!

DEADLINE: NOV. 1

Entries must be postmarked by November 1, annually. Download entry form (PDF, 331 KB)

California Fruits and Vegetables Seasonal Chart (PDF, 18 KB)

Kelly Deming Giacomazzi on the E.A.T. Foundation

By Charmayne Hefley, Associate Editor

Tulare County Ag Tops all Counties

By Laurie Greene, Editor

2014 Fresno County Crop Report Sets Record Production — $7 billion+

Our farmers deserve praise, not condemnation; and their efficiency should be cause for gratitude, not something for which they are penalized.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

California Ag News… At Your Fingertips!

Entries must be postmarked by November 1, annually.
Download entry form (PDF, 331 KB)

California Ag News…
At Your Fingertips!