NMPF says CWT program having major price impact - Newsline

Rural Cooperatives, March-April, 2004 by Dan Campbell

The National Milk Producers Federation is projecting that dairy producers in Wisconsin and Minnesota will realize an additional $200 million of income by September as a result of the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program. CWT is an industry-sponsored and funded self-help effort to boost prices to farmers by reducing surplus milk production. Participating farmers pay a 5-cent fee on every 100 pounds of milk they produce, which NMPF uses to pay other producers for reducing their production or selling their herds. The herd retirement part of the CWT program has removed 33,000 cows from the nation's milking herd of 9 million cows. Others have cut back production by changing feed programs or stopping use of growth hormones, etc.

Milk prices have risen from $11 per hundredweight to about $13.50 in much of the Upper Midwest since the program was launched. Even many critics are now calling the program a success, according to press reports. "With prices at record lows for 22 months, you had to do something," Waterloo, Wis., dairyman Todd Topel told the Associated Press. "It seemed to have some effect," he added, noting that he was not participating in the program.