CORALVILLE, IOWA (Jan. 21, 2010)-National Farmers Dairy Division Director Bradly Rach, promoted the organization's Cooperative Marketing Initiative (CMI) to members and the media at National Farmers Convention 2010 in Coralville, Iowa.
     "Our Cooperative Marketing Initiative (CMI) would complement CWT, to help improve general milk price levels across the country," said Rach. National Farmers' proposal takes a non-governmental approach, where America's dairy producers can join together to alter the dairy marketing and pricing landscape."
     Rach proposed that CMI could become an extension of CWT and continue to be administered by National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF). CMI would perform three functions.

• It would set national production levels consistent with national usage
• Assign to each cooperative a production level consistent with their share of usage
• Set target prices at appropriate values, enabling members to produce milk profitably

     CWT would determine how much milk would need to be marketed to set the target price. They would also set a base for each cooperative called "Full Value Production Level." Each cooperative, when given its "Full Value Production Level" would assign a portion of it to each of its members and pay target prices to producers, less expenses.
     Volumes over the "Full Value Production Level" would be accepted, but at a different rate of compensation. Disputes and challenges would be handled by CWT. "We believe our proposal is unique from others, because it calls for no government involvement," Rach said.
     Rach noted that although CWT retired 61,000 lactating cows from the nations dairy herd in the last 16 months, but during that same timeframe 55,000 lactating cows crossed the border into the United States.
     That factor, along with new technology, may make it increasingly difficult for family farms to remain sustainable. Recently National Milk Producer Federation (NMPF) reported that sexed semen technology has already added 132,000 lactating cows to the national herd.
     National Farmers is a group marketing, price negotiating and risk management organization for the nation's farmers and ranchers.

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