In his recent NFL MVP speech, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen advised everyone to “Be good, do good.” Fortunately, the Dairy Pricing Association knows exactly how to do that in the most effective way.
Like Josh Allen, everyone serving in leadership position or as a member of the DPA is a farmer (but in this case, a dairy farmer specifically). The nonprofit organization has been in existence since 2011 and it currently has members in 10 states.
Their mission is simple: “To promote domestically produced dairy products and to establish the minimum price the dairy industry receives for its production while at the same time maintaining a level of milk production to meet the needs of the consumer.”
DPA Office Manager Cindi Hammond explained, “It’s all grassroots. The goal is to improve the milk pay price and keep it stable. And we want to see things change for dairy producers across the U.S.”
How does this team do that? They run a tried-and-true play. When milk is plentiful, many loads of raw milk are sold at $1 to $3 per cwt. under the Class III price, and that “cheap” milk goes into storage as cheese or powder and starts to amass. The DPA gathers and maintains a fund from its members to buy at these times to keep the system from being overloaded – and to make sure dairy producers can actually turn a profit.
“We watch the CME [Chicago Mercantile Exchange], especially the block price, and how that affects our prices,” Hammond said. “We are strategically buying blocks and donating them – mostly to food pantries, but multiple other organizations over last 14 years.”
Those buying dollars come from a voluntary “checkoff” above and beyond the 15 cents taken in producers’ regular checks. Hammond said some members add 2 cents/cwt., others all the way up to 30 cents/cwt. – and they can bow out of that donation at any time.
Donating a few cents per hundredweight from your milk check can benefit people directly – by buying blocks of cheese like this, farmers can help those in need and help stabilize milk prices. Photo courtesy of DPA
“It is profound how much we’ve moved in the past 14 years,” she said. “Almost 15 million pounds of raw milk. That’s 300 tanker loads.”
New York members recently donated 2,222 pounds of cheddar to Feeding New York State, another nonprofit that partners with government, the food industry, donors and volunteers to reduce food waste.
“When they picked it up on the 27th of January, it went directly to a place to cut up those 40-pound blocks into one-pound blocks for distribution,” Hammond said. The cheddar was delivered the 10 Feeding NYS sites around the state, which provide food in all 62 counties.
“The biggest obstacle we have is the transportation – but Feeding New York State said it wasn’t an issue,” Hammond said.
She noted that this donation was a bit of a “test run” of how DPA operates. Some organizations aren’t sure how they can handle such large amount donations.
This was also a successful test run for the Central New York dairy farmer who called Country Folks to let us know of this good effort. “He’s working with other local farmers to get them on board,” Hammond said. “He’s saying ‘This is what we should be doing. We should have a voice in how our promotional money is being used, and it could be used best in our local community.’ One person can really have an impact.”
Of the 10 states that have members in the DPA, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania are those in the Country Folks region.
The key to winning this game is twofold. “We want people to have dairy products and have them fresh,” Hammond said, “and buying at a strategic time helps the pay price on the farm.”
Interested in learning more and being part of a winning organization? Visit dairypricing.org or call Hammond at 715.284.2590.
by Courtney Llewellyn
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