Next steps toward revising the Federal Milk Marketing Order
National Milk Producers Federation Senior Vice President Member Services and Governance Chris Galan concluded the Federal Milk Marketing Ordinance Reform Public Hearing.
“This process began more than two years ago. National Milk conducted a number of internal reviews, and throughout 2022 and early 2023, we met with experts from a number of our member cooperatives to develop several We came up with a proposal and submitted it to the USDA last spring. And almost a year later, here we are. And at least USDA has no idea what it would take to revise and update the milk pricing system. We have just completed a public hearing process to hear from our group, other cooperatives from other industry groups, and processors.”
Since starting in August. This hearing was completed at the end of January after a period of five months.
…Groups like ours will have a quiet period of 60 days to submit additional comments and summaries of what we've published. These are expected to be submitted on April 1st, with the expectation that the USDA will issue a so-called recommended decision, possibly by mid-summer. This is not a final decision, but basically their recommendation of what needs to happen. ”
Galen expects final recommendations to be issued within a year.
