Digest Highlights: Whole milk sales stronger in January. Foremost Farms and MMPA formalize alliance. Agriculture ELD waiver extended. Find a summary of this and other news here.
Whole milk bright spot in January fluid milk sales
January 2018 sales of conventional and organic whole milk rose 4.3 percent and 11 percent compared to a year earlier, respectively, helping limit the decline in overall fluid milk sales.
January 2018 total U.S. packaged fluid milk sales were estimated at 4.2 billion pounds, down just 0.6 percent from January 2018, according to the USDA’s Dairy Market News. U.S. sales of conventional products totaled 4 billion pounds, down 0.8 percent from the previous year, while sales of organic products, at 234 million pounds, were up 2.3 percent. Organic represented nearly 5.5 percent of total sales for the month.
Flavored whole milk and flavored fat-reduced (2 percent) milk also posted gains in January.
The U.S. figures represent consumption of fluid milk products in federal milk order marketing areas and California, which account for approximately 92 percent of total fluid milk sales in the U.S. Sales outlets include food stores, convenience stores, warehouse stores/wholesale clubs, nonfood stores, schools, the food service industry and home delivery.
Foremost Farms, MMPA formalize alliance
Leaders of two Upper Midwest dairy cooperatives – Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) and Foremost Farms USA – agreed to enhance joint business and milk marketing investments while addressing the milk supply and processing capacity imbalance in the region.
Co-op leaders signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), March 15, formalizing discussions between the two co-ops to pursue co-investment opportunities. The co-investments include, but are not limited to, the Middlebury Cheese Company, Middlebury, Indiana, which will process an additional 500,000 pounds of milk per day into barrel cheese; and the recently announced dairy campus in Greenville, Michigan. It also incorporates expanding an alliance in place since 2014, at the MMPA-Constantine (Michigan) reverse osmosis plant.
“This commitment not only includes investments but also creates a marketing partnership that will mutually benefit both organizations,” said Joe Diglio, MMPA general manager. “Through collaborative efforts, we can avoid investing in redundant assets and allow us to fully optimize our members’ capital investments.”
“We collectively believe more immediate investment is needed to satisfy the imbalance between milk production and milk solids processing capacity,” said Mike Doyle, Foremost Farms president and CEO. “With our commitment of the first phase of the dairy campus at Greenville, planned to be operational fall of 2018, we believe this arrangement will help satisfy that need and create value-added processing growth.”
Foremost Farms USA, headquartered in Baraboo, Wisconsin, is a farmer-owned milk processing and marketing cooperative with about 1,300 dairy farmer-members and annual sales of $1.5 billion.
MMPA is a dairy-farmer-owned cooperative serving about 1,700 dairy farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, handling approximately 5 billion pounds of milk annually. MMPA operates two SQF Level 3 certified manufacturing plants in Michigan and a cheese plant in Indiana.
Earlier this month, MMPA was named as a participant in a cheese and whey production joint venture with Glanbia plc, Dairy Farmers of America Inc. and Select Milk Producers Inc. MMPA will serve as a milk supplier for the plant, scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2020.
Ag commodity truckers get additional 90-day waiver
U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a 90-day extension exempting some agricultural commodity truckers from a federal electronic logging device (ELD) rule. An original waiver was due to expire March 18.
An ELD is a record-keeping device synchronized to a truck engine that logs information digitally. In real time, an ELD records data such as time spent on the road, miles driven, location and engine hours.
Under the ELD rule, truckers have an hours-of-service limit of 11 hours of driving in a 24-hour period. Drivers can be on duty a total of 14 hours consecutively, including the 11 hours of drive time. After 11 hours are reached, drivers must rest and be off duty for 10 consecutive hours.
Livestock haulers and agricultural organizations have questioned the original mandates. The hours-of-service stipulations make it difficult to transport livestock long distances without either stopping to unload midway at holding facilities or keeping livestock in the trailer for the 10-hour wait time. Another option to stay within regulations would be using teams of drivers, but there has been a shortage of drivers, especially for livestock transportation.
FMCSA began implementing the rule last December, with full enforcement of the ELD rule scheduled for April 1. FMCSA will publish final guidance for agricultural truckers during the extended waiver period.
NMPF supports FDA proposal to revoke ‘heart health’ claim for soy protein
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is supporting a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposal to revoke an authorized health claim that links soy protein with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. The organization also repeated its insistence that FDA take action against plant-based food companies that inappropriately use dairy terminology to market inferior imitation dairy products, such as soy “milk.”
Last fall, FDA announced its proposal to revoke the health claim because numerous studies since its original authorization in 1999 have presented “inconsistent findings” regarding the relationship between soy protein and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease.
In comments submitted to FDA, Jim Mulhern, NMPF president and CEO, commended the agency for undergoing the rigorous review of recent science to take a closer look at the health benefits of soy protein.
“New research revealing the lack of heart benefits from soy protein or just as important, a positive effect from dairy fat, means that Americans can make more informed, healthier decisions regarding their diets,” he said.
FDA’s proposed rule comes almost 10 years after the agency initially announced its intent to re-evaluate the science behind the soy protein health claim. During this extended time, NMPF said, certain soy food companies have used the claim when labeling their imitation dairy products, insisting that because of soy’s purported healthful properties, soy “milk” is a healthy alternative to conventional cow’s milk. Not only is this health claim without significant scientific support, based on FDA’s proposed rule, it also blatantly skirts federal regulations on the labeling of dairy foods like “milk,” “cheese” and “yogurt,” according to NMPF’s comments.
Edge dairy cooperative selects new leaders
Directors of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative have elected new leadership to succeed John Pagel, who died Feb. 22 in an airplane crash.
Brody Stapel, Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, was elected president. Stapel farms with his brother and father at the 220-cow Double Dutch Dairy. Stapel was elected to the board in 2016 and had been serving as vice president since January.
“The energy and excitement that John [Pagel] impressed upon those both inside and outside of the dairy community were contagious, and I am honored to have this opportunity to carry on that vision with the support of our incredible board,” Stapel said.
Todd Doornink, Jon-De Dairy, Baldwin, Wisconsin, was elected vice president. He farms with his father and daughter, and has been on the board since 2011.
The cooperative’s other officers are unchanged. Mitch Davis of Davis Family Dairies in Belle Plaine, Minnesota, is treasurer, and Jim Winn of Cottonwood Dairy in South Wayne, Wisconsin, is secretary. An open seat on the board will be filled at a later date.
Edge (formerly the Dairy Business Milk Marketing Cooperative) is a verification, market information and policy co-op representing about 800 dairy farmer members marketing more than 10 billion pounds of milk annually.
USDEC adding market development staff
The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is putting boots on the ground to develop dairy export markets.
Nine professionals will be hired to expand business opportunities in key global export markets. The first two hires are a business development director and an account manager for the Middle East/North Africa (MENA). This fast-growing market spans nearly 4,000 miles from the coast of Morocco to the eastern side of Oman. USDEC projects MENA dairy ingredient and cheese imports will rise by more than 160,000 tons and 85,000 tons, respectively, from 2016-21.
Additionally, USDEC plans to add three positions in China, two in Southeast Asia, one in Japan and one in South Korea.
Tom Vilsack, USDEC president and CEO, previously announced the “The Next 5%” initiative, designed to boost U.S. dairy exports to about 20 percent of U.S. milk solids production. Current exports represent about 15 percent of production.
National Farmers Union approves dairy policy recommendations
The National Farmers Union (NFU) approved a special order of business highlighting federal dairy policy during the organization’s 116th anniversary convention, held in early March in Kansas City, Missouri.
The NFU policy statement said USDA projections that the 2018 all-milk price will average $15.80 per hundredweight (cwt) is about 30 percent below the cost of production. NFU delegates said recent changes to the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) were insufficient to fix federal dairy policy shortcomings. They called for additional support for dairy farmers facing a fourth consecutive year of poor financial conditions.
Among reforms, NFU delegates called for:
• establishment of an incentives-based inventory management program to manage milk inventories based on market demand and pricing stability.
• passage of the Dairy Premium Refund Act, which would refund unused MPP-Dairy premiums to farmers instead of keeping the money in the federal treasury.
• increase federal spending to make dairy safety nets more effective.
• adjust risk management programs, including the Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy) program, to account for actual cost of production.
• provide federal contract protections between dairy farmers and their milk handlers, including at least 90 days notice of any termination of service.
PepsiCo funding school breakfast initiative
The PepsiCo Foundation and GENYOUth are increasing access to the national school breakfast program to help conquer hunger in underserved communities.
The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the global food and beverage company, will provide "grab-n-go" breakfast carts to be used as part of “Ready, Step, Move…Give!” The initiative was created in partnership with Healthy Living, PepsiCo's employee well-being program.
Through PepsiCo U.S. employee donations to GENYOUth, a network of private and public partners to raise funds for youth wellness initiatives, the carts will provide approximately 2.25 million school breakfasts to students in 25 schools in 18 states. The breakfast carts will serve an assortment of fresh fruits, yogurt parfaits, muffins, bagels, milk and cheese sticks – meeting the USDA's nutrition standards for school breakfast.
Texas A&M adds to veterinary complex plans
A new Veterinary Education, Research & Outreach (VERO) Center has been added to Texas A&M University’s capital spending plan.
The $22.8 million VERO Center will be constructed adjacent to West Texas A&M University’s new Agricultural Sciences Complex and a new Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) facility, currently in the process of relocating from Amarillo to Canyon, Texas.
Total investment for the three facilities will be about $90 million. Completion is expected in 2020.
Established in 2016, the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Center hired Dr. Dee Griffin and Dr. Dan Posey to build a program to address regional industry needs. In 2017, West Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences set a school record of 10 graduating pre-veterinary majors who were accepted into veterinary schools. Nine of the 10 went to Texas A&M. 
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