The members of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) voted Tuesday to fund the self-help program for two full years, from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2010, to help bring the dairy supply into balance with shrinking demand.
The decision to fund CWT for another two years is predicated on achieving the participation of a 67% supermajority of the nation’s milk supply at the current 10 cent per hundredweight membership assessment, said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT.
CWT’s members also approved two changes in program policy. First, all members whose bids are accepted in future herd retirement programs will agree and warrant to cease dairy production for one year. This warranty will apply to both the producer and his/her dairy facility.
The second change is that farmers who were successful participants in past CWT herd retirement rounds will be permitted to bid in the next herd retirement round that CWT conducts.
Kozak noted that CWT has not solicited government financial assistance. He indicated that a prominent agricultural lender will provide CWT a line of credit tied to the level of funding that CWT members are committing to invest in the organization over the next two years.
“I can only say that we will use the financial resources our members provide us to achieve the most bang for the buck. Given where milk prices are compared to the cost of production, I believe we are in a position to remove a significant amount of oversupply in the future, but we will continue to be careful stewards with our resources. We are not going to squander money to meet someone else’s arbitrary expectations of what CWT should do,” Kozak said.