Discussions on how to advance a producer friendly bill through the California legislature continued this week with advocates, principals and legislators engaged.

Last week the author of AB 31, Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) reiterated his support for finding a path forward to assist California dairy families in their economic struggle. California dairy families have been whipsawed by a combination of a milk price for cheese disconnected from the marketplace and feed costs exploded by domestic ethanol policy.

A value for whey was initially implemented in the California pricing formula by CDFA Secretary Bill Lyons who recognized the need to tie California’s cheese price to the marketplace. Secretary Lyons’ solution provided a whey price that tracked the market – when prices went up, values went up and when prices went down, values declined.

Secretary Lyons’ market based solution became a big target for the state’s cheesemakers. When Governor Schwarzenegger replaced Lyons with his own Secretary, A. G. Kawamura, California’s cheesemakers seized the opportunity to try and eliminate Lyons’ market based approach from California's 4b formula for milk going into cheese and petitioned CDFA to eliminate the whey value shared with the state’s dairy families.

Kawamura largely acquiesced to the cheesemakers’ demand and agreed to completely disconnect California’s whey value from the marketplace. Kawamura implemented a fixed whey value at $0.25 per hundred-weight that ignored market fundamentals. Consequently, when whey values shot up in the market with increased global demand, California farmers received $0.25. When whey values slumped due to global recession, Californians received $0.25. If the value of whey had soared to $10.00, California farmers would have received $0.25.

California dairy families have been struggling to reconnect their price to the market-place ever since.

“We greatly appreciate Dr. Pan’s continued commitment to fighting to eliminate the inequity in our pricing system that has caused so many of our family businesses to close – over 400 family farms since our price was severed from the market in 2007,” noted Tom Barcellos, board president of Western United Dairymen. “We have been working to right this wrong since then. As we continue to work through the department, we also felt it necessary to try and work through the legislative process to help correct this inequity and stem the closure of more California family dairy farms. We thank Dr. Pan for standing shoulder to shoulder with our farmers in this fight.” June 7, 2013 WUD Friday Update

The National Weather Service has issued warnings of extreme heat for the weekend of Jun 7-9 with temperatures of 110 to 115 degrees forecast in the Central Valley.  The California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP) has issued guidelines for dairy producers about preventing heat stress in the livestock and getting their mortalities picked up.

Recommendations for dealing with heat stress:

* The best tools are adequate and accessible drinking water, shade and water-cooling.
 
* Dairy producers should be sure that they can milk, water and cool their cows, even in the event of rolling blackouts or power failure.
 
* Many producers have back-up generators for their milking parlor, which should be inspected to ensure operational condition. Emergency power should also be available for fans and well pumps.
 
* Misters, soakers and fans should be checked to ensure they are operational.
 
* Shade structures (especially shade cloths) should be in good repair.
* When wetting the animals use large droplets (150 micron diameter sprinklers) not a fine mist, and wet the animals to the hide to saturate the hair for maximum cooling effect. The water should run off the animals.
 
* In general, working cattle should be avoided except in the early morning.

The Emergency Animal Disposal Workgroup (EADW) has developed guidelines related to carcass disposal during times of increased mortality.

* Monthly agreements facilitate pick-ups, as does calling early.
 
* Accurate counts of carcasses assist renderers with route planning.
 
* Old carcasses can slow the rendering process, creating a bottleneck effect.
 
Keeping mortality pick-up moving smoothly is particularly important to producers in the Central Valley, who have no legal method of disposing of carcasses on the dairy facility. If producers are experiencing difficulties or delays in having dead animals picked up by rendering companies, they should immediately contact their local office of emergency services or office of environmental health and make them aware of situation. Local officials are in a position to assist with alternate methods of disposal, including evaluating the need for a declaration of a local emergency.

On-line resources for heat stress:

Heat Stress in Dairy Cattle - - University of Arkansas

How to Reduce Heat Stress in Dairy Cattle - - University of Nebraska

Coping With Summer Heat - - Kansas State University 

Prepare Now for Dairy Heat Stress Season

Dairy Feeding and Management Decision During Heat Stress - - North Carolina State University

Posted: June 7, 2013

Nearly 70 golfers gathered at Diablo Grande Golf Club on Monday, June 3, in a successful fundraising event for Western United Dairymen’s Federal Political Action Committee. The daylong event saw warm temperatures and plenty of competition among the teams. The winning foursome taking home top honors was Todd Stroup, Gary Cupit, Luke Miller and Sean Martin.  Other awards were given to: Junior Correia for Men’s Longest Drive; Becky Deniz for Women’s Longest Drive; Steve Lawrence for both closest to the pin contests (and the winner of Mike Marsh’s $100); and Jon Yonan for the putting contest.  Many prizes were given out during the dinner, with the grand raffle prize of a flat screen television going to Jason Vander Tuig. Photos from the tourney can be viewed by clicking here.  June 5, 2013 WUD News

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) said today that a House Judiciary Committee vote requiring the Farm Bill’s dairy reform program to go through regular government rulemaking was a reasonable compromise to get the reform program approved. “This is the latest attempt at compromise by Congressman Goodlatte on a program that has been approved twice by the House Agriculture Committee and that dairy farmers overwhelmingly support,” said NMPF President and CEO Jerry Kozak. “It’s time to end the divisiveness and approve reform of the federal dairy program,” Kozak added. “For that reason, we see today’s vote, which appears to accept that the Dairy Security Act  (DSA) will become law, as a good compromise.” (more) June 5, 2013 NMPF press release