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Lawmakers, Dairy Farmers Wrangle on Program

Posted on: Thursday, 13 October 2005, 06:00 CDT

By DEVLIN BARRETT

WASHINGTON - A rift among lawmakers and dairy farmers across the nation has led to the end of a federal program which may be crucial to upstate New York farmers if prices continue to drop.

The debate over the program, called Milk Income Loss Contract, reached a boiling point last week when a Senate spending bill stalled over objections from lawmakers in the West. The measure will be taken up again next week.

"We're hanging in the balance here," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.

The disagreement in Congress stems from the way the program pays farmers and the fact that Western dairies tend to be much larger than those in the Northeast and Midwest.

MILC, which expired last month, offered payments to dairy farmers when prices per hundredweight drop below a certain level. Milk prices have been relatively high the last two years, so there has been little need for it. Advocates argue prices are heading down, and warn lower prices without help would drive many small dairy farmers out of business.

The MILC program paid farmers only on the first 2.4 million gallons of milk each year, which usually means about 120 cows. Many western dairies have far more cows, while roughly 80 percent of dairy farms in upstate New York are small operations.

The taxpayer-funded program has paid out a little more than $2 billion to dairy farmers since its inception in 2002, including $180 million to New York farmers.

"We have a little more clout than they do, but we need the White House to weigh in," said Schumer, who urged New York farmers to call or write the administration asking them to live up to President Bush's 2004 election-year support for a MILC extension.

In the Senate, New Mexico Republican Pete Domenici told his leadership he would not support other key votes if a MILC extension was made part of a farm spending plan.

He called the program "bloated, unfair, and ineffective."

Supporters appear equally determined to keep it, though.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., made the unusual move of yanking her support of an agriculture bill she had co-sponsored, after the MILC program extension was removed from that bill.

Several national milk-producer groups have not taken a position on MILC, given the internal disagreements. The New York Farm Bureau supports an extension.

"We're anxiously trying to get it reinstated ... We're getting more nervous the farther away we get," spokesman Peter Gregg said.

Gregg noted that in September, the price per hundredweight of regular milk in New York was "just one penny away" from the $16.94 price floor created by MILC. The price has been moving down in recent months, he said.

"The makeup of the rural economy in upstate New York is very dependent on these `Mom and Pop' operations that dot the countryside," said Gregg.

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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Apples are a $20-million-a-year industry in the state, with the McIntosh crop making up about 70 percent of Vermont's apple production. Being a little greener, though, could end up costing the state's growers thousands of dollars.

"The color is off, the quantity is down some, but otherwise, (the crop) is looking pretty good," said Bob Douglas Sr., a partner in the Douglas Orchards and Cider Mill in Shoreham.

This year's apple crop may not be as red as past years but officials expect an average quantity of fruit.

Vermont's McIntosh crop is a little green around the edges this fall due to unusually warm weather that has helped keep foliage from displaying full color and has slowed the ripening of some apple varieties.

Steven Justis, specialist for Vermont's Agency of Agriculture, said that "just like the foliage, they need the cold weather to really get that intense color."

The U.S. Agriculture Department grades apples on color. For a McIntosh to meet the "extra fancy" criteria it must meet minimum requirements. Greener McIntosh apples are graded lower.

Justis said it is too early to tell what economic impact the warm autumn will have.

"The worst case scenario is that our growers will be sitting on a lot of apples," he said.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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