Following the release of its joint Milk Crisis Plan with the International Dairy Foods Association earlier this week, the National Milk Producers Federation today began a social-media campaign geared toward dairy farmers and their allies, #dairyneverstops, to underscore the urgency in dairy country for a federal plan that can mitigate catastrophic economic damage that is expected to worsen for producers over the next several months, as the coronavirus-created recession bites more deeply.

“#dairyneverstops is both a nod to the unique difficulties dairy farmers face as producers of a perishable product that’s created 24/7, 365 days a year and to the resilience of those farmers in the face of overwhelming economic difficulties,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “The support of retail consumers who have turned to milk in grocery aisles in recent weeks has been incredible. But even this sales surge is not enough to offset the near-evaporation of dairy demand from the foodservice sector. As milk continues to be produced with fewer buyers to purchase it, dairy farmers face significant revenue losses, which come on top of a half-decade of low prices that only recently had seen recovery.”

Farmers, other segments of the dairy sector, and their allies in broader communities are all encouraged to use the hashtag to share their stories, engage in discussion and create a greater awareness of dairy’s circumstances for policymakers in Washington and across the United States.

Clay Detlefsen, senior vice president of regulatory and environmental affairs for the National Milk Producers Federation and the private-sector chair of the Food and Agricultural Sector Coordinating Council – says that while shortages of grocery staples have eased in the U.S., shortages of personal protective equipment may linger into June – and that even after the coronavirus threat has ebbed, the era of masks and gloves for food-sector workers may be here to stay.

“I have to wonder if we just haven’t changed the game,” said Detlefsen in an NMPF podcast. “Are workers down the road, in the future, going to want wear those masks and gloves at all times? It’s quite possible. But if that doesn’t happen, I still think we have several more months of this.”

The Food and Agriculture Sector Coordinating Council was set up after the Sept. 2001 terror attacks to share information between government agencies and private businesses during crises that affect the U.S. food-supply chain. To listen to the full podcast, click here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,  SoundCloud and Google Play. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file. Please attribute information to NMPF.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) sent a set of recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday urging the Administration to take swift, comprehensive action to support the U.S. dairy industry through the COVID-19 crisis. The plan outlines how this disaster is affecting U.S. dairy from farm to fork and underscores the main challenge facing U.S. dairy today: Supply exceeds demand by at least 10% – a gap that could widen as supply increases to its seasonal peak and as “shelter in place” conditions endure. NMPF and IDFA urge USDA to use as many tools as possible – as quickly as possible – to bridge the supply and demand gap without creating any long-term market repercussions.

NMPF and IDFA are grateful to Congress and the Administration for moving quickly to pass and sign into law the CARES Act, a substantial relief package to bolster the programs and support mechanisms needed to weather the COVID-19 crisis. The NMPF-IDFA plan calls for USDA and the Administration to go above and beyond traditional programs and solutions to bring balance and certainty to the dairy industry in the months ahead. Through the CARES Act, Congress has deployed substantial financial resources to USDA. To ensure the U.S. dairy industry is intact following the COVID-19 disaster, NMPF and IDFA request the federal government use every financial tool in its arsenal to bring balance to the dairy industry as quickly as possible. The organizations also ask that USDA harness the productive capacity of U.S. dairy to address the growing and widening food insecurity facing many Americans by redirecting wholesome, nutritious dairy foods to food banks and national nutrition programs.

“The COVID-19 crisis has hit the dairy industry with a unique set of challenges that impact our dairy farmers and processors equally hard,” said IDFA President and CEO Michael Dykes, D.V.M. “As the impact deepens across our economy, the federal government must go above and beyond traditional programs and solutions to bring balance and certainty to the dairy industry. The CARES Act deployed substantial financial resources to USDA to address dairy’s unique challenges. The IDFA-NMPF plan calls for USDA and the Administration to bring those resource to bear as quickly as possible. The dairy industry requires a response that is robust, broad and strategic enough to lift all boats in a way that prevents long-term market impacts, preserves the supply chain so the industry remains intact once the COVID-19 crisis passes, and ensures dairy remains a vital part of feeding a growing number of food insecure Americans.”

“As most of the country shelters in place and large swaths of the foodservice sector come to a standstill, dairy sales outside retail channels have plummeted. Market prices have fallen rapidly, creating a crushing economic outlook for producers of nutritious, and necessary, milk and dairy products,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “While no plan can wholly remedy the losses that are occurring, dairy is responding with a united plan that can help mitigate the damage caused to it by the COVID-19 pandemic. After extensive discussions across the industry, we have developed this comprehensive action plan to address many of the key marketplace challenges created by the pandemic and are presenting it to USDA. We will engage in discussions with USDA in the coming days about the proposal, urging the department, as we know it will, to move quickly to address the effects of the pandemic on our industry. We look forward to working closely with USDA as we fight for dairy farmers.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the U.S. dairy supply chain in a matter of weeks, lowering milk prices, sapping demand by shutting down most restaurants and other foodservice businesses, and bringing unprecedented challenges to our dairy farms and processors. Together, NMPF and IDFA are unified in their proposal to USDA and the Administration and will continue to work around the clock to ensure the U.S. dairy industry remains a viable, critical piece of our national, economic and food security.

For information, resources and updates on COVID-19, please visit NMPF or IDFA.

CONTACT:

Alan Bjerga, Senior Vice President, Communications

National Milk Producers Federation

703-469-2372

 

Matt Herrick, Senior Vice President, Executive & Strategic Communications

International Dairy Foods Association

mherrick@idfa.org

Last night, the National Milk Producers Federation, the largest organization of U.S. dairy farmers, and the International Dairy Foods Association submitted a request for assistance to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern offered the following statement:

“As most of the country shelters in place and large swaths of the foodservice sector come to a standstill, dairy sales outside retail channels have plummeted. Market prices have fallen rapidly, creating a crushing economic outlook for producers of nutritious, and necessary, milk and dairy products.

“While no plan can wholly remedy the losses that are occurring, dairy is responding with a united plan that can help mitigate the damage caused to it by the COVID-19 pandemic. After extensive discussions across the industry, we have developed this comprehensive action plan to address many of the key marketplace challenges created by the pandemic and are presenting it to USDA.

“We will engage in discussions with USDA in the coming days to discuss the proposal, urging the department, as we know it will, to move quickly to address the effects of the pandemic on our industry. We also understand the demands being placed on USDA at this time. Nevertheless, after five straight years of poor milk prices that were just starting to improve before the pandemic hit, USDA’s immediate actions here will be critical to help people survive the market devastation that has occurred.  We look forward to working closely with USDA as we fight for dairy farmers.”

The National Milk Producers Federation’s coronavirus webpage has added new information for farm employers and employees, as well as guidance for veterinarians, to help the dairy community keep up with evolving government and marketplace responses to coronavirus.

Key new documents include:

• An NMPF/FARM Program-created guidance for farmers if an employee tests positive for COVID-19;
• NMPF’s two-page “What Farm Employers Need to Know about Sick Leave Requirements” document;
• Temporary guidance for veterinarians and producers regarding telemedicine and the Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship, created by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; and
• And a guide for Wisconsin farmers on the emergency disposal of milk.

NMPF’s coronavirus page, which debuted March 6, has emerged as a go-to resource for all of dairy, featuring information for farmers, employers and processors and offering rich materials on topics from animal health to workforce management in both English and Spanish. The page also is home to an NMPF podcast series that includes in-depth interviews with dairy experts as the industry manages through the coronavirus crisis.

National Milk Producers Federation Chief Economist Peter Vitaliano says current coronavirus-created gloom over dairy prices as expressed in futures markets may turn out be overstated in the end, but that the pain felt by producers over the next few months will be real, as lower prices make their way into milk checks paid to farmers for their milk.

“These are unusual circumstances that I’m not sure the futures have figured them out yet,” Vitaliano says in an NMPF podcast released today. Because milk in stores now was purchased at earlier, higher prices, “producers are not seeing this in their milk checks yet,” he said. “That’s going to come over the next several months, because the forecasts are all indicating that we’re going to be to be hitting the trough in May and June.”

Vitaliano also said that a USDA aid package for dairy farmers would be most effective if “they would pretty much follow” recommendations NMPF made in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last week. NMPF in its letter called for:

• Additional dairy-product purchases, which will help Americans in need during what may be a period of very high demand at food banks;
• Compensation for milk disposal, a real possibility as logistical challenges on the farm and at manufacturing plants may create severe disruptions; and
• Re-opening signup for participation in the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program, the main safety net for dairy farmers, especially small and medium-sized producers. DMC participation declined in 2020 because of forecasts for higher prices that have been radically revised in light of coronavirus.

To listen to the full podcast, click here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,  SoundCloud and Google Play. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file. Please attribute information to NMPF.

Words like “unprecedented” shouldn’t be thrown around lightly, but it’s indisputable that what we are living through now has no modern parallel. Travel in the United States, the world’s richest nation, has nearly ground to a halt. Industries are being upended, and tens of millions of Americans are wondering whether, and when, their paychecks will end.

People seek comfort in times like these. At the National Milk Producers Federation, our comfort comes from the inspiration in seeing an industry coming together to serve the public. For myself, inspiration comes from seeing our dairy farmers, dairy cooperative members and team at NMPF rise to the occasion at a moment that could easily overwhelm us all.

Let’s start with our industry.

Coronavirus concerns have been building for weeks, largely as a concern about shuttered trade and lower dairy prices. But the public health effects didn’t fully explode into American consciousness until the week of March 9 – coincidentally, the week of our regular Board of Directors meeting in Washington. As conferences were cancelled across the country, our humble-sized event evolved into a discussion of what lay ahead – and the guidance we received from our farmer and cooperative-leaders proved invaluable as we set our policy and member-service priorities in the moments when restrictions began to take hold.

As store shelves emptied and supply chains strained, we began holding special conference calls of our Executive Committee, the leadership body we constituted only last year that includes our officers and several other cooperative leaders. Through that our members were able to gain insights and discuss strategies to help manage the unfolding crisis. This conversation centered around the challenges faced in various regions by differently structured operations, and it allowed us to provide leadership in Washington, pursuing policies aimed at aiding producers and processors through immediate federal actions and charting a path forward as situations evolve.

That initiative, combined with the collaborations we’ve had with our colleagues at the International Dairy Foods Association, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, state and regional dairy organizations and the entire supply chain, have informed our response, and we are thankful for all who are making such tremendous efforts.

The empty store shelves we’ve all seen, and which now appear mostly re-stocked, only underscores the importance of dairy’s work. Our industry has responded at every step from farm to table. Dairy farmers and farm workers, despite the health concerns, are working around the clock. Milk haulers continue moving that milk to processors. The farm feed, supply and veterinary system keeps providing for our animals. Manufacturing plants and their employees, again despite the need for extra health precautions, continue processing milk into a variety of wholesome, safe, nutritious products. From there, numerous other key players assure these foods get to their destinations and onto store shelves so they can nourish consumers.

Everyone involved in this supply chain has been deemed by the federal government as essential employees, because what we do for America and the world is critically important. We provide an essential product that comforts consumers in uncertain times. This only strengthens our resolve moving forward, in what promises to be a marathon effort that could last months.

Another group of essential employees who are assisting dairy through the coronavirus is the incredible staffs we have working on our behalf at the various organizations I noted above. I can tell you that our staff at NMPF, already used to working long hours, are working longer at home than they did in our offices.

In every area in which we are active – Capitol Hill, USDA, FDA and other regulatory agencies, trade, environment and the FARM Program, member services, administrative services, and communication – each staffer has made notable contributions to advancing the interests of the dairy community at this crucial time.

Through the industry’s combined efforts we’ve already achieved gains that will help all of agriculture, such as coronavirus stimulus that includes significant food purchases, emergency flexibility in service hours for milk transporters, the relaxing of FDA facility inspection schedules and the reaffirmation of agriculture as critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security. Legislation Congress passed last week contains provisions we sought to provide additional needed financial support for dairy. In a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue we outlined some of the key areas of need as government dairy product purchases for distribution to food banks; a program to assist with potential milk disposal; and reopening 2020 Dairy Margin Coverage sign-up, as well as other efforts.

While many people across the dairy industry have helped protect and advance our collective interests, I do want to highlight the efforts of Clay Detlefsen, our staff counsel and head of our regulatory team, who is doing an incredible job for the entire food industry as the private-sector chair of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Food and Agricultural Sector Coordinating Council, an initiative between the federal government and food companies that works to address issues in the food chain when a crisis hits us.

The Department of Homeland Security’s March 19 reaffirmation that agriculture is a part of critical infrastructure – a federal signal to other government entities that the important work of agriculture should proceed unimpeded – was in no small part the result of Clay’s hard work. He has tirelessly worked across the breadth of the food and ag sector and the federal government to get the message across that plants have to operate, workers have to be on the job, and trucks all have to move, to ensure that U.S. consumers get the nutrition they need. Clay deserves gratitude from all of us, as well as our support as he continues to lead this important organization as it handles the thorny issues coronavirus raises.

Even a few weeks ago, when we saw headlines and knew it could come here, few of us truly grasped the profound disruption coronavirus could have on our lives and our industry. Although even then we were preparing: Our coronavirus website, now rich with information for dairy farmers and industry, debuted March 6, preparing for the storm when we were still unsure of its severity.

But this is where we are. To meet the challenges of coronavirus – and they will be many and difficult – we need resolve, we need persistence, and we need to be leaders. Even in what, unfortunately, may still be the early days of this unprecedented crisis, I’ve already seen enough to have the confidence – and comfort – that we will emerge from this strongly.

Let’s support one another and do what our dairy community does every day: Get the job done.

In the first three months of 2020, CWT member cooperatives secured 171 contracts to sell 8.9 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 1.3 million pounds of butter, 1.8 million pounds of cream cheese, and 8.8 million pounds of whole milk powder. These totals include March contracts for 4 million pounds of cheese, 165,347 pounds of butter, 449,743 pounds of cream cheese, and 3.5 million pounds of whole milk powder. The milk equivalent of the 2020 contracts 189 million pounds on a milkfat basis.

The coronavirus situation in the U.S. has dramatically changed the domestic market for dairy products, with much of the food-service and school-milk sectors, critical markets for U.S. dairy farmers, drying up as businesses and schools close nationwide. The Cooperatives Working Together export assistance program counteracts the shakeup in domestic demand by moving U.S.-created dairy products overseas, helping to support farm milk prices.

Assisting CWT member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program, in the long-term expands the demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them. This, in turn, positively impacts all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation.

All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available at http://www.cwt.coop/membership.

While the coronavirus crisis dominated the work of NMPF – and everyone else – in March, the organization still progressed in other areas, including:

• Following NMPF Board approval of the FARM Workforce Development 2^nd party evaluation tool at its March meeting, FARM staff is working to finalize the FARM Workforce Development Participation Agreement for coops and processors to voluntarily participate in this program area. The Participation Agreement will be distributed within the next 2 weeks. Staff also is working to integrate the evaluation tool into all the relevant platforms, including the database and app, necessary for full implementation.
• Connecticut dairy farmer James “Cricket” Jacquier, a member of NMPF’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee, testified March 10 before the House Committee on Agriculture’s Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture to provide a dairy perspective on agricultural trade. Jacquier urged Congress to work with the Administration to use negotiating resources wisely to target important agricultural markets, noted the need for careful implementation of negotiated trade agreements, and raised concerns with European efforts to misuse geographical indications to confiscate common food names.
• NMPF and USDEC submitted joint comments Feb. 26 to the U.S. delegate on the Codex Task Force on Antimicrobials Resistance Draft Revised Code of Practice to Contain and Minimize Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance. The comments emphasized that much progress was made at the 7th CODEX TFAMR meeting and that it should proceed to the next step for adoption in the CODEX process. The few remaining items can be work on through an electronic working group and finalized at the 8th CODEX TFAMR meeting.

In the final moments before coronavirus began to dominate American life, dairy farmers from National Milk Producers Federation member cooperatives and state dairy associations visited U.S. Senate offices as part of a fly-in calling for an agricultural labor bill that could be reconciled with a plan the House approved last year, providing the stable, secure labor force U.S. dairy producers need.

“The situation is dire,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF, the biggest U.S. dairy-farmer organization, at the NMPF’s March board of directors meeting held March 10-11 in Arlington, Virginia, which immediately preceded the fly-in. “Dairy farmers face labor shortages while they are forced to navigate the deeply uncertain and volatile realities undergirding agriculture labor in the U.S. Meanwhile, uncertainty on the farm harms individuals and rural communities that rely on those farms to generate jobs.”

The House of Representatives in December passed bipartisan legislation allowing for year-round visas in dairy as part of the first ag-labor bill to pass that chamber since 1986. NMPF supported the bill, noting that, although imperfect, its passage was a necessary step in moving toward a legislative solution addressing the ag labor crisis, with further work to be done in the Senate to improve upon the House measure.

During the board meeting, NMPF officially expanded its membership with the addition of Cayuga Marketing, LLC based in Auburn, NY, adding an important upstate New York voice to NMPF’s work on behalf of all dairy producers.

NMPF also endorsed dairy-sector sustainability efforts during its meeting, lauding industrywide plans to reduce carbon emissions to net zero.

Launched as a simple statement on March 6, NMPF’s special coronavirus webpage has quickly become a go-to compilation of essential dairy-farmer and dairy-industry resources, including everything from an aggressive expansion of Spanish-language materials to the launch of a new podcast series specifically devoted to dairy-related coronavirus issues.

The site, www.nmpf.org/coronavirus, was shepherded by NMPF Communications Manager Theresa Sweeney, who worked closely with web vendor Dupont Creative to turn the initial basic webpage into a fully functional site within 24 hours of the initial decision to do so. The coronavirus page was NMPF’s most-visited webpage for the final three weeks of March, drawing twice as many views as the NMPF home page, www.nmpf.org.

Content on the site was specifically focused toward dairy farmer and employer needs, including contributions from the full range of NMPF staff ranging from government guidance on reducing the virus threat in the workplace to a template work permit to be given to employees reminding relevant officials that agriculture is considered critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security. Sweeney, who grew up on a California dairy farm, oversaw which documents were translated into Spanish, with an eye toward materials that would benefit employees, while the FARM team shared its own expertise on workforce management and effective stewardship in a time of crisis.

At the same time, the new NMPF podcast series highlighted on the site – a repurposing of its existing “Dairy Defined” thought-leader series to the coronavirus era – featured NMPF experts discussing facets of government and industry responding, ranging from Senior Vice President and staff counsel Clay Detlefsen discussing supply-chain issues and Vice President for Sustainability and Scientific Affairs Dr. Jamie Jonker on dairy-farm best practices to FARM Vice President Emily Yeiser Stepp explaining adjustments in the FARM Program and Vice President for Government Affair Paul Bleiberg on federal stimulus.

The initial focus of the series was on public-health and supply-chain issues, with Jonker the first guest. Additional podcasts touching on economic and other issues were planned for April, with outside guests also integrated into the program.

With more activities occurring online and via teleconferencing and other web-based technologies, NMPF plans to continue its proactive communications approach, adapting communications tools to meet dairy needs throughout the current challenge.