Cooperatives Working Together has announced the fifth round of herd retirements. Starting June 3, bids will be accepted through June 30. New to this round of bidding is the option for producers to include all their bred heifers, for a flat fee of $1,050 per animal; and the exclusion of regional safeguard limits.
“All of the economic indicators and benchmarks that guide CWT’s decisions, including farmers’ cost of production, show that now is the appropriate time for us to initiate this herd retirement,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT. “In particular, significantly higher feed and energy costs have put dairy farmers between a financial rock and a hard place.”
All dairy producers submitting bids to sell their herds must be members of CWT as of January 2008, either through their membership in a fully participating cooperative, or as an independent member of CWT. Bids will be reviewed in early July, with field auditors then proceeding after mid-July to visit each accepted farm to begin the cow removal process.
Through the herd retirement program, if a farmer’s bid is accepted, CWT pays that farmer for the volume of milk produced by that herd in a 12 month period. The farmer is responsible for selling the cows for slaughter, and he or she retains the proceeds from that transaction. As in the past, any producer who had his bid accepted in any of the previous herd retirements is not eligible to participate again.
Listen to Kozak’s opening statement from a Tuesday press conference here: [audio:http://zimmcomm.biz/dairy/nmpf-kozak.mp3]