NORTH DAKOTA
Dairy farmers struggle with low milk prices
North Dakota dairy farmers packed a meeting room last month at a state Farmers Union conference on the woes in the dairy industry.

The problems are nationwide, but in North Dakota they come as officials struggle to keep the industry alive.

The number of dairy farms in the state has plummeted from about 1,600 in 1990 to about 200, said Gary Hoffman, director of the State Dairy Coalition, a group formed six years ago to try to revive the industry in the state. The number of dairy cows has fallen in that time from 100,000 to fewer than 30,000.

With the collapse of milk prices in the past year, the problem is getting worse. North Dakota State University farm economist Dwight Aakre estimates farmers in the state will lose about $1,000 per cow this year if the situation does not improve.

Farmers lobbied for the federal government to set a minimum milk price of $18 per hundredweight – about double what they are receiving now. They also want Congress to find ways to boost exports, decrease imports of milk protein concentrates they say food companies are using in place of milk, and better monitor what they say is suspect speculation in commodity markets. The farmers also said they need to do their own part by better promoting their product and reducing supply to meet demand.
—From AP newswire

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Vilsack establishes Dairy Industry Advisory Committee
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is establishing the Dairy Industry Advisory Committee and is requesting nominations. Secretary Vilsack promised to move forward with establishment of a charter creating the committee for two years.

Once appointed, the committee will review the issues of farm milk price volatility, and dairy farmer profitability. The committee will also offer suggestions and ideas on how USDA can best address these issues to meet the dairy industry’s needs.

USDA is establishing the committee under the authority of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972. The Secretary of Agriculture will appoint up to 15 representatives of the dairy industry to serve in an advisory capacity on the Committee.

Representatives will include: producers and producer organizations, processors and processor organizations, handlers, consumers, academia, retailers and state agencies involved in organic and non-organic dairy at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Written nominations must be received on or before September 28, and should be sent to Judith Lindsay, secretary to Brandon Willis, deputy administrator, Farm Service Agency, Farm Programs, USDA Room 3612-S, Stop 0501, Washington, D.C. 20250-0501; faxed to (202) 720-4726; or e-mailed to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text34116 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
—From Western United Dairymen Weekly Update

For more information on the National Dairy FARM Program, log on to www.nationaldairyfarm.com or contact Betsy Flores at (703) 243-6111.
—From National Milk Producers Federation news release

MINNESOTA
Princess Kay of Milky Way crowned
Minnesota has a new ambassador for its dairy industry. Eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Olson of Hutchinson, Minnesota, was crowned as Princess Kay of the Milky Way at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

Olson is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities where she’s majoring in animal science. She represented McLeod County. Her sister, Sarah Olson, was Princess Kay in 2002.
—From KLFD-AM

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Internet usage, computer ownerships drops on farms
While overall farm computer usage and Internet access in the U.S. has increased in the past two years, most numbers for the dairy sector have remained flat or even dropped, according to an NASS report.

In 2007, 59 percent of U.S. dairy farms owned or leased a computer. By 2009, the number had dropped by two percentage points. And while 55 percent of dairy farms had Internet access in 2007, only 52 percent had it in June 2009.

Although Internet access and computer usage dropped in the dairy sector, computer usage for farm business went up one percentage point from 44 percent. All of this increase came from dairies with annual incomes over $250,000.

Overall percentages for Internet access by U.S. farms has increased from 51 percent to 59 percent between June 2007 and June 2009, with the most growth in the grain and oilseed farm sector.

Computer ownership on U.S. farms increased from 60 percent to 61 percent, with a 1 percent increase in using computers for farm business.
—From Progressive Dairyman staff/NASS news release

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Hired workers up 6 percent, wage rates up 3 percent from a year ago
There were 1,238,000 hired workers on the nation’s farms and ranches during the week of July 12-18, up 6 percent from a year ago. Of these hired workers, 875,000 workers were hired directly by farm operators.

Agricultural service employees on farms and ranches made up the remaining 363,000 workers. Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage of $10.64 per hour during the July 2009 reference week, up 30 cents from a year earlier.

Field workers received an average of $10.04 per hour, up 38 cents from last July, while livestock workers earned $10.03 per hour compared with $9.98 a year earlier.

The field and livestock worker combined wage rate, at $10.04 per hour, was up 30 cents from 2008. The number of hours worked averaged 39.8 hours for hired workers during the survey week, down 2 percent from a year ago.
—From NASS news release

MISSOURI
Missouri Dairy requests emergency relief
The Missouri Dairy Association (MDA) has asked Governor Jay Nixon for emergency relief for Missouri’s dairy producers.

“A group of our members met with the Governor [last month] and presented our request for a one-time emergency payment from Federal stimulus money of $2.00 per hundredweight on January through June milk production from Missouri’s 2,000+ dairy producers,” says Larry Purdom, MDA president from Purdy, Missouri.

“The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) of the University of Missouri estimates this one-time emergency payment to be $16.48 million. Missouri currently has 110,000 cows with an economic impact of $13,737 per cow or $1.5 billion.

“Other states are already stepping up to help their dairy farmers. Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine and Vermont have made financial commitments and a request has been made for $60 million in New York State,” says Dave Drennan, MDA executive director.

“Missouri is a milk-deficit state now and imports about 1.7 billion pounds of milk to satisfy all of the needs of our consumers. Without the Governor’s immediate action, this deficit will continue to expand greatly and Missouri’s consumers and economy will suffer,” concludes Drennan.
—From Missouri Dairy Association news release

WASHINGTON, D.C.
CATO Institute finds $180 billion benefit to legalizing illegal immigrants
A new study from the libertarian CATO Institute concludes that legalizing the more than eight million undocumented workers in the U.S. would have significant economic benefits for the country, while simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the U.S. economically.

The new report, written by Professor Peter B. Dixon and Research Fellow Maureen T. Rimmer at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University in Australia, relies on an economic model used by the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Agriculture and Homeland Security, as well as International Trade Commission.

Weighing public spending and revenues, U.S. employment rates in various occupations, and price levels for imports and exports, among other things, the authors conclude that “increased enforcement and reduced low-skilled immigration have a significant negative impact on the income of U.S. households.”

The minimal savings in public spending on immigrants now “would be more than offset by losses in economic output and job opportunities for more skilled American workers.”

A policy that reduces low-skilled immigration to about a third less than projected levels, then, over ten years, “would reduce U.S. household welfare by about 0.5 percent, or $80 billion.”

In contrast, “legalization of low-skilled immigrant workers would yield significant income gains for American workers and households,” the study found.

Legalization would eliminate the costs of smuggling illegal immigrants, would allow immigrants to be more productive and openly participate in the economy, and it would “create more openings for Americans in higher skilled occupations.”

The overall positive impact for U.S. households of legalizing these workers over ten years would be “1.27 percent of GDP or $180 billion.”
—From The Washington Independent

IDAHO
UI official reaffirms interest in dairy center
A top University of Idaho administrator says the school is still committed to building a dairy research center in the Magic Valley.

College of Agriculture Dean John Hammel met with farmers and state lawmakers last month and reaffirmed the university’s interest in the proposed Idaho Center for Environmental and Livestock Studies.

The Times-News reports Hammel acknowledged the difficulty of promoting a pricey project amid the financial challenges facing the university, which is looking to save $3 million by shuttering research and extension centers.

But he says the dairy industry’s prominence in Idaho makes the livestock center a valuable tool for the future. Planners say the center, projected to cost about $37 million, would be one of the nation’s largest dairy research facilities.
—From The Times-News

WASHINGTON, D.C.
USDA sees huge drop in farm income
The Agriculture Department’s latest farm income forecast points to a staggering 38 percent drop in farm income this year. Farm income for 2009 is forecast to be $54 billion, $9 billion below the 10-year average of $63.2 billion, due to lower prices for crops and livestock.

Net cash income, at $68.2 billion, is forecast to be down $29.4 billion (30 percent) from 2008, and $3 billion below its 10-year average of $71.2 billion, according to USDA’s latest farm income update released in August.

Expenses are forecast to decline from a record high posted last year, marking the first time costs have dropped since 2002.  PD
—From Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation Ag NewsWire