Cooperatives Working Together(CWT) has received commitments from its members that they will continue to fund the program in 2009, CWT officials said today.
“Now more than ever, CWT is the only answer to the question of what can farmers do to positively impact their milk price,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT. “Both world and U.S. dairy markets are sagging and things look tough for 2009. Our members recognize that this program is the best way to help balance supply and demand and positively impact producers’ bottom line.”
CWT is currently in the process of removing 184 herds, with 61,000 cows that produced 1.2 billion pounds of milk, through its second herd retirement of 2008. CWT’s first herd retirement of the year removed 25,000 cows that produced 430 million pounds of milk. In addition, its export assistance program has helped members sell overseas the equivalent of more than two billion pounds of milk in 2008.
“With the continued investment individual producers and cooperatives are making, CWT will have the financial resources to remove more cows, and export more products, that will help battle the decline in dairy prices in 2009,” Kozak said.
An independent economic analysis of CWT, conducted this fall by Dr. Scott Brown of the University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, demonstrated that farmers’ return of investment in CWT has been 76 cents per hundredweight. Moreover, Brown’s analysis showed that the return farmers enjoy grows as the program develops over time.