The following are responses by producers and industry experts who participated as panelists or provided testimony at the Department of Justice/USDA antitrust hearing in Madison, Wisconsin, June 25. What good may come from the USDA/DOJ workshop? I believe that it was very significant to the future of our dairy industry that Secretary Vilsack and Attorney General Holder recognized the importance of conducting workshops, such as the one held in Madison, Wisconsin. This event provided representatives of our industry an opportunity to focus the attention of our public officials, in addition to everyone in our industry, on their views about the critical issues we need to solve in order to restore economic stability to our industry.

Ideally, the views we presented will be deemed valuable by our industry leaders, as they work their way toward identifying policy initiatives which will command broad support among producers. In turn, our leaders need to move quickly to generate the broad legislative support which is necessary to achieve the meaningful change we need in outdated rules, policies and procedures.

Ed King
Kings-Ransom Farm
Schuylerville, New York

The workshop was an important opportunity for us to present facts about our cooperative and our work on behalf of our members. A very small but vocal group has tried to cast a negative light on today’s cooperatives, and on DFA specifically, but I think the testimony at the workshop told a very different story. Looking at the bigger picture, I believe the workshop allowed for very productive dialogue about the challenges facing our industry. There is no question that dairy farmers are hurting, and the respectful and thoughtful conversations we saw at the workshop are critical to achieving the industry consensus and momentum necessary to inspire dairy policy reform.

John Wilson
VP of Marketing and Industry Affairs for DFA
Kansas City, Missouri

I think it is good that the USDA and DOJ are having these discussions throughout agriculture. If the system works as it should, the workshops will bring to light issues of consolidation and lack of competition which should rightly be addressed by the Department of Justice and the USDA. If nothing else, hopefully it educated people who, although they are far removed from the farms, have an impact on farm policy.

Chris Sukalski
Reiland Farms
Le Roy, Minnesota

It’s encouraging to see the DOJ and USDA working together to review competition and consolidation issues facing the dairy industry. I believe the workshop will help both departments understand the complexities of the dairy industry and how strong antitrust enforcement will help ensure farmers are receiving a fair shake for the goods they produce. Clearly, the challenge for the agencies will be determining what they can do to address the problems that we heard so much about.

Sen. Herb Kohl
Democrat
Wisconsin

What will probably not change even after the meeting?

Historically, there have been plenty of reasons for producers to cry “foul” about almost every aspect of our industry. In fact, some might observe that many producers have honed their expertise in identifying the shortcomings in our industry while never contributing one solid positive proposal which might stand the test of time if implemented.
I suspect that the propensity for some of us to continue to engage in these types of tactics will die a long, slow death. The inability for this type of individual to come to realize that their future is best served by seeking to build and strengthen our industry, rather than tearing it down, has been a major roadblock standing in the way of real progress for dairymen. Along with the charge to build comes an equal responsibility to lead. I can only hope that more will choose to build.

Ed King
Kings-Ransom Farm
Schuylerville, New York

It is hard to say what will or won’t change, but this open process and sincere efforts by the DOJ and USDA to fix issues in the industry are appreciated. We look forward to continuing to work with these groups and our peers in the industry to build a stronger future for dairy farmers.

John Wilson
VP of Marketing and Industry Affairs for DFA
Kansas City, Missouri

Dairy farming will always be challenging, and I don’t expect that to change. Perhaps government can watchdog antitrust and trade issues that affect us, but I don’t expect that government will come up with a solution to the perfect storm situation we were dealt in 2009 and are still dealing with.
I would rather see us help ourselves. The current CWT program is an example of us helping ourselves. It may not be perfect, but I hope it is a start to what we can do for ourselves to strengthen our industry as well as our own farms.

Chris Sukalski
Reiland Farms
Le Roy, Minnesota

The Justice Department will have to take a closer look at the dairy markets and determine what actions may be needed under the antitrust laws to address anti-competitive activities, and whether the tools they currently have are sufficient do so. In addition, we must work with the USDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to improve market transparency, which can lead to fair prices for farmers.

Sen. Herb Kohl
Democrat
Wisconsin