Two New Master Cheesemaker Grads

News EditorCheese, Dairy Checkoff

WisMilkMarketingBoardLogoThis is an interesting fact – Wisconsin is the only state to offer a Ph.D cheesemaker training program. The training takes three years to complete, and certification is offered in a variety of cheeses. Wisconsin has now graduated 49 cheesemakers from the advanced-level training program, which was established in 1994.

In April, two new members joined the ranks of certified Wisconsin Master Cheesemakers. Paul Reigle, of Maple Leaf Cheese, Monroe, Wis., Yogurt Cheese, and Jerome Zibrowski, of Mindoro, Wis., Blue Cheese and Gorgonzola.

Also included in the 2007 graduating class are returning Masters Terry Lensmire of Trega Foods, Little Chute, and David Lindgren of Lynn Dairy, Granton. Both completed the program a second time for certification in additional varieties. Lensmire, a member of the first graduating class in 1997, previously earned certification in Cheddar and Monterey Jack and is now certified in Provolone and Mozzarella, as well. Lindgren, certified in 2001 in Mozzarella and Provolone, is now also a Master in Cheddar and Monterey Jack.

The Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker® Program is the only Master program in the United States. It is administered by the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research and funded by Wisconsin dairy producers, through WMMB. Participants must be active, licensed Wisconsin cheesemakers with at least 10 years experience. Cheesemakers can earn certification in up to two cheese varieties each time they enroll and must have been making those varieties as a licensed cheesemaker for a minimum of five years prior to entering the program.

Are You a Product Judge?

News EditorGeneral

WiscDairyProductsLogoThe fifth annual World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product contest will once again be held at World Dairy Expo in October. The contest, sponsored by the Wisconsin Dairy Products Association, will now include categories for drinkable yogurts, whey based energy drinks, lime sherbet and cream cheese. Due to the new categories, the contest is looking for judges – could you be one?

The World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest is the only nationwide contest to include all dairy products. “This unique quality has resulted in extraordinary marketing opportunities for those companies who take first place in their respective categories,” says Legreid. In addition, this contest is unique in that contest entries are submitted by companies, not individuals, allowing all company employees the opportunity to support and celebrate their entries’ achievements.”

WDPA is seeking judges for these products:

➢ Cheese & Butter – 8 judges needed
➢ Yogurt – 2 judges
➢ Ice Cream and Sherbet – 2 judges
➢ Whey Products – 2 judges
➢ Cottage Cheese, Sour Cream and Sour Cream Dips – 2 judges
➢ Fluid Milk and Cultured Buttermilk – 2 judges

Interested parties should send their resumes to Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn, 8383 Greenway Blvd, Middleton, WI 53562 by May 25, 2007. A WDPA contest committee will review all resumes and select the judges.

NMPF Presents Proposals for Farm Bill

News EditorGovernment

NMPFlogoThe National Milk Producers Federation presented new farm policy proposals Tuesday to members of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Visit NMPF’s website to read all of the proposed policies.

In testimony Tuesday to the Senate, NMPF President and CEO Jerry Kozak said that “we firmly believe that a multi-faceted approach is necessary in order to create a more effective, market-oriented safety net.” Kozak said NMPF’s highly-detailed plan “was created with extensive input and discussion by dairy producers throughout the nation, taking into consideration the concerns of producers of all sizes. We have taken ideas that have been successful in the past and, where appropriate, built on them.”

Examples of these improvements include NMPF’s proposal for the dairy price support program. NMPF is recommending that it be changed to a program whereby the USDA purchases specific dairy products at specific price levels, in contrast to the current program, under which the USDA is given vaguer discretion to support farm-level milk prices. NMPF’s more definitive program will make the program “more predictable than the status quo,” Kozak said.

The same is true for NMPF’s recommendation for a direct payment program. The current Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program will be less valuable to farmers in the future. That’s why NMPF is recommending a new milk producer security payment in place of the MILC. NMPF’s program would be decoupled from milk production and price levels, meaning it would generate payments to farmers regardless of market prices.

NMPF is backing expansions of the existing Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Reserve Program. Such programs need to place added emphasis on helping dairy farmers invest in technologies that convert animal waste to electricity.

NMPF Calls for Changes in Protocols

News EditorGovernment, Price

NMPFlogoNational Milk Producers Federation is calling for the USDA to a change the reviewing protocols of product pricing and inventory data it collects. Recently, it was discovered that nonfat dry milk prices have not been reported accurately in monthly government surveys.

The USDA last week said that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) had been collecting price data on nonfat dry milk sales that did not accurately reflect current market prices for the product. NASS officials will now go back 52 weeks to review pricing data for other nonfat dry milk sales in an attempt to clarify the veracity of its historic pricing data. Those reported prices are part of the information used to calculate the price that farmers receive each month in their milk checks.

Back in October 2000, Congress passed legislation requiring the reporting of dairy product inventories and prices. The law gave the USDA the authority to require dairy manufacturing plants to report any data having an impact on product prices, including both sales and products stored in inventory. That data was to be subject to mandatory reporting and auditing. NMPF was the lead organization pushing Congress to pass a law giving the government additional product data collection capabilities.

But because of confusion and delays over the intent of the legislation, the NASS still does not have the full ability to audit such data, meaning the accuracy of its current reports may be suspect. Such was the case in 2000, when a warehouse reporting error resulted in a 32% miscalculation in domestic butter stocks. A similar situation occurred in 1999, when millions of pounds of cheese suddenly appeared in the NASS cold storage report. Both errors resulted in a sharp drop in farm-level milk prices.

Vote For The WMMB Board Candidates

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Group, Government

Wisconsin Milk Marketing BoardThe Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is trying to get out the vote for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. The elections are coming up the week after next. Nine nominees have been certified which include:

District 3 Lincoln, Oneida, Price and Taylor counties
Candidate: Ed Jasurda of Phillips

District 6 Chippewa and Eau Claire counties
Candidate: Patricia Boettcher of Bloomer (incumbent)

District 9 Menominee, Shawano and Waupaca counties
Candidate: Don Robaidek of Pulaski

District 12 Portage, Waushara and Wood counties
Candidate: Ken Heiman of Marshfield (incumbent)

District 15 Adams, Juneau and Monroe counties
Candidate: Mary Cook of Wilton (incumbent)

District 18 Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington
and Waukesha counties
Candidate: James Stemper of Plymouth (incumbent)
Candidate: Andrew Large of Port Washington

District 21 Crawford and Vernon counties
Candidate: Judy Wubbenhorst of Westby (incumbent)

District 24 Dane and Jefferson counties
Candidate: Mark Christenson of Lake Mills (incumbent)

For the media (and of course anyone online) the WMMB has created a page with pictures and bios.

DATCP is forwarding mail-in ballots to dairy producers who live within the eight districts. Producers who have not received a ballot by May 11 should contact Noel Favia at (608) 224-5140 or (800) 942-2474. Election results will be announced in June.

CWT Export Assistance Bids

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Group, Export

Cooperatives Working TogetherHere’s the latest announcement from Cooperatives Working Together:

CWT announced today that it accepted nine export assistance bids last week for the sale of butter and cheese. One bid was from Dairy Farmers of America to export 57 MT (125,400 lbs) of cheddar cheese to South Korea.

The other eight bids were from Land O’Lakes: 7 MT (15,400 lbs) of retail-packaged cheese to the United Arab Emirates; 3 tons (2,200 lbs) of retail cheese to Bahrain; 6 tons (13,200 lbs) of retail cheese, and 0.16 tons (352 lbs) of retail butter to the Philippines; 6 tons (13,200 lbs) of retail-packaged cheese, and 0.12 tons (264 lbs) of retail butter to China; and 4 tons (8,800 lbs) of retail-packaged cheese and 0.4 tons (880 lbs) of retail butter to South Korea.

These accepted bids increase CWT’s total 2007 export obligations for cheese to 5,128 Mt (11.3 million lbs); its YTD export obligations for butter to 4,572 Mt (10.1 million lbs) and its YTD anhydrous milkfat exports to 1,642 tons (3.6 million lbs).

Milk Production Slows

News EditorIndustry News, Markets, Milk, Price

The latest milk price predictions from Bob Cropp, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prices will continue to be strong in 2007.

Milk production growth continues to slow from the 2% even 5% monthly increases from the previous year during 2006. This has been a major factor in strengthening milk prices this year. Compared to year earlier, March milk production for the 23 reporting states was up 1.1 percent. Milk cows were 0.7% more than a year ago, but a continued low increase in milk per cow of just 0.4% held down the increase in total milk production.

Two major factors will hold down milk production in the months ahead. One is cow slaughter which is running well above a year ago. Strong milk prices will require a continued decline in milk cow numbers as the year progresses. Such a decline is still forecasted with the average number of cows for the year down about 0.3% compared to 2006. The second that will slow milk production is high feed prices and reduce use of BST will continue to slow increases in milk per cow. Despite March milk prices almost $4.00 higher than a year ago much higher feed prices resulted in a milk-feed-price ratio just 2.41, down from 2.70 March a year ago. Not only has corn and soybean prices been much higher than a year ago, the price of alfalfa hay was also 20 percent higher. The new hay crop and green chop is just beginning in California which may ease hay prices some in that state.

The March Class III price was $15.09, $3.98 higher than a year ago. Cheese, dry whey and butter prices have all strengthened since then. The April Class III price will be around $16.00. A major factor in higher milk prices has been high dry whey prices. Central dry whey prices are running $0.76 to $0.825 pound compared to just $0.30 to $0.3375 a year ago. Dry whey prices are part of the Class III formula price and for every one cent increase in dry whey prices the Class III price increases about $0.06.

In summary, all factors point to much higher milk prices for all of 2007 offsetting some of the higher feed prices. But, it is still uncertain whether cheese and dry whey prices will hold at levels that will allow current Class III futures prices to materialize. But, also if summer weather is unfavorable to milk production, prices this summer and early fall could be even high. Higher prices may result in some demand resistance similar to what occurred with record high prices in 2004.

Wisc. Farmland Meets Defeat

News EditorGovernment, Industry News

Farmers in Wisconsin who are trying to protect their farmland from development are meeting defeat when it comes to voters passing such referendums.

It was the first countywide vote in Wisconsin on a purchase-of-development-rights program that would let owners of farmland sell its development rights, virtually guaranteeing it would never be developed for housing or related purposes. County property taxes would help pay the cost of the purchases. On the same day, voters in the town of Mukwonago, 25 miles southwest of Milwaukee, rejected a plan aimed at saving some of the 4,800 acres of prime farmland left in that community. Elsewhere in Wisconsin, similar proposals are pending in La Crosse and Jefferson counties, and some rural communities have approved them on their own. A recent study by the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development said cropland has been disappearing in Wisconsin faster than any other state in the region, with nearly 5 percent, or the equivalent of 30,000 acres a year, lost from 2000 to 2005.

The proposal drew opposition by the Wisconsin Realtors Association, but spokesman Joe Murray said his group’s $15,000 lobbying effort, mostly mailings and telephone calls, probably wasn’t much of a factor. He said his group is not against land conservation but was concerned that the plan would rely too much on property taxes, should have a more general funding source and had too many other unknowns.

Modern Logo Launched

News EditorIndustry News, Milk

NewTuscanLogoTuscan Dairy, an 89 year old processing company that serves New York City and nearby cities, is launching a new multi-media campaign to announce their redesigned logo. The company’s website is counting down the days to its relaunch….39 days to go! I really like the new logo, what do you think?

The updated logo gives the familiar Tuscan cow a modern make-over, combined with a fresh green background and places emphasis on the dairy’s history by adding the date, 1918. In support of the packaging re-launch, Tuscan Dairy Farms will also run a new television, radio, and digital campaign in the New York market beginning in April. The campaign features a Tuscan gallon of milk on the commuter rail showing off his hip, new label.

The dairy plans to roll out new packaging beginning with their fluid milk products including whole, 2%, 1% low fat, fat free milk and flavored milk in quarts, half-gallons and gallons. In addition, the dairy will update the entire family of products throughout 2007 to include the complete line of beverages, cultured dairy products and flavored milks.

Earth Day Tomorrow

News EditorIndustry News

One of the many email updates I receive is Cow-Calf Weekly. This week’s edition includes a thoughtful editoral by Alaina Burt. I know that dairy producers are this country’s number one Earth Day observers!

Since 1970, April 22 has been celebrated as Earth Day, and is now observed by 500 million people and governments in 175 countries. It’s one day that millions of people pause in the midst of their busy routines to step outside and enjoy the spring sunshine while pondering their personal contributions to the earth.

For ag folks, celebrating the earth and the environment is something we do every day. We get our hands dirty caring for the soil, livestock and wildlife and are thankful we’ve been entrusted with such a grand task. We can learn from those honored folks in the cattle business who have been Environmental Stewardship Award Program nominees (check out what past winners have done at www.beef-mag.com; type “ESAP” into the site search).

Yet, there is still much to learn. No-till farming has reduced soil erosion, conservation programs continue to create habitats for wildlife, and effective manure management helps keep waterways clean and safe.

The take-home question is: how is your operation making Earth a better place? Your answer is what we need to communicate to the non-agricultural industry to debunk misconceptions about our business. We all have a great story to tell — whether it’s putting up duck houses, planting trees to reduce wind erosion, or implementing strategies to reduce and utilize manure waste — it’s our story, and it needs to be heard.