Producers being asked to limit production

Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden is praising Madison based Family Dairies USA for working with farmers and being proactive in limiting the milk that comes in instead of dumping it or selling it at below market prices after the fact.  Von Ruden also said that he commends the cooperative for asking its members to all share in the burden of managing oversupply .  In early April, Family Dairies asked its members in a letter for help managing the oversupply of milk being produced in Wisconsin.  Asking its patrons to try and hold current levels of production and not increase their outputs more than 1%.

 “Wisconsin Farmers Union urges dairy cooperatives to implement internal oversupply management systems that apply proportionally to all members to harmonize their supply of milk with their processing capacity,” Von Ruden said.

According to Von Ruden, Land O Lake’s was one of the first cooperatives in recent history to work with a base program for conventional milk.  Additionally, Organic Valley Coop and Westby Cooperative Creamery also work with their producers  when it comes to organic dairy milk production.