American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) economist Danny Munch presented testimony this week at the ongoing Federal Milk Marketing Order Pricing Formula hearing. This is the third time an AFBF representative has testified at the hearing.
The testimony focuses on adjusting make allowances, or the estimated costs that dairy processors incur to convert milk to consumable dairy products, like cheese and butter. This price directly impacts the price paid to farmers for their milk.
AFBF is advocating for make allowances to be adjusted based on a mandatory, audited USDA survey, which USDA says it does not have the authority to conduct. AFBF is pursuing legislation that would direct USDA to conduct such a survey. AFBF opposes increasing make allowances based on potentially biased voluntary survey data that could reduce farmers’ prices unfairly.
AFBF submitted nine proposals for consideration during the hearing, and four were accepted by USDA. Additionally, AFBF largely supports four of the five proposals submitted by the National Milk Producers Federation.
Full AFBF testimony is available at fb.org.