Dairy, livestock and poultry producers were represented during a hearing this week before a House Agriculture subcommittee on concerns about feed availability and the main theme of all the witnesses was the impact of ethanol policy on feed availability.

Testifying on behalf of the dairy industry was Dr. Eric Erba with California Dairies. “From our point of view, the problem is not feed availability, it is the price of feed,” Erba said. “Feed has been and continues to be available, but not at prices at prices that make good financial sense for dairy producers” since feed costs represent almost 65% of the cost of producing milk.

Erba noted that California dairy producers are particularly vulnerable to feed price increases because they buy most of their corn for feed, rather than grow it on their own operations. “Dairy producers are critical of the federal policy that favors fuel over food because of the evidence that policies put animal agriculture at tremendous risk for higher production costs with no guarantee of higher prices for product produced,” he said.