Tipton Sees Progress, Seeks Cooperation Among Industry Sectors

Dairy Foods, March, 2001

MIAM--At Dairy Forum in January, E. Lindwood Tipton, pres./CEO of the International Dairy Food Assn. gave a keynote speech touching on the current issues in the industry and encouraging attendees to work together.

Following are a few excerpts from the speech:

Forward contracting: "This is a real step forward in making this a valuable tool for the industry. Forward contracting is very popular among dairy farmers who want to reduce some of their risk. It's also popular with processors who want to know their costs for better planning. This is a significant movement into the 21st Century for the dairy industry and will permit risk management through e-commerce."

Class III Butterfat Pricing: "Unfortunately, USDA is about to upset the risk management tools for butter and milk fat with its most recent and totally unexpected decision to set separate butterfat values for Class III milkfat. We hope to be able to correct that problem in the coming weeks."

Counter-Marketing: "I'm happy to report that our research shows that attitudes about milk are as positive as ever (Dairy) worked with the nation's leading nutrition and science experts to show that the claims these groups are making are ridiculous..."

Cooperation: "When our attitude is that the other guy is the adversary,... all of us spend a lot more money, time and energy on advocacy, and a lot less money, ... and energy on building the business that belongs to all of us."