In July, dairy producers began contributing 10 cents per hundredweight to the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program. Now an independent analysis reports that the affects of CWT has been at least 40 cents since it began in 2003.

An independent economic analysis of the impact of Cooperatives Working Together has found that the dairy self-help program has raised farmers’ prices by at least 40 cents per hundredweight since it began operations in 2003. The study was performed by Dr. Scott Brown of the University of Missouri, a nationally-known farm policy expert who is often called on by the U.S. Congress to assess agricultural economic issues.

The cumulative impact of CWT from the start of 2004 through the first half of 2006 is $1.97 billion in additional producer revenue, according to Brown’s evaluation. It showed that the milk price impact has grown with each herd retirement program. The normal attrition of cows in a herd was taken into consideration in determining the effect on milk production in the years following a herd removal.