The Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearing, which ran from August 23, 2023 to January 30, 2024, has finished. Trade associations like as the National Milk Producers Federation and the International Dairy Foods Association have indicated support for revisions to the Class I mover formula. The present formula has cost farmers $1.2 billion in damages since its adoption after the 2018 farm bill, with more losses likely in the coming months. The higher-of method, which suited farmers well, adapts rapidly to market changes, improves farmer cash flow, is easy to grasp, and has no actual effect on processors who utilize the formula to raise their immediate balance sheets.
IDFA’s chief economist, Mike Brown, said that pricing regulations were “out of step with the modern marketplace,” which is characterized by a dynamic, creative supply chain that focuses on items such as cheese, yogurt, dairy-based health drinks and powders, frozen delights, and value-added fluid milk. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) requested legislators to apply the previous higher-of Class I mover criteria on an emergency basis to protect dairy producers from future losses throughout this thorough and protracted regulatory change process.
The deadline for interested parties to make corrections to the transcript of testimony, proposed findings and conclusions, and written arguments or briefs is April 1, 2024. No later than 90 days after that, on June 30, the USDA is scheduled to publish a recommended conclusion or “tentative final decision” in the Federal Register. Additional comments and exceptions to the proposed conclusions may be submitted with the USDA hearing clerk 60 days after the decision is published in the Federal Register.
The regulator will make its final judgment, followed by a vote in which producers will be able to accept or reject the proposed modifications. If producers agree the amendment(s) to the order(s), they are published in the Federal Register as a final rule, announcing when the amendment(s) will become effective and bringing the rulemaking process to a close.
