CWT tentatively accepted bids cover 25,474 cows, 440 million lbs. of milk
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) announced it has tentatively accepted 209 bids in its herd retirement program, representing 25,474 cows and 440 million lbs. of milk. CWT also accepted bids for 358 bred heifers, a new option for its herd retirement program this year.

Starting the week of July 21, CWT field auditors will begin visiting the 209 farms whose bids were accepted, checking milk production records, inspecting herds, and tagging each cow for processing. All farmers will be notified no later than Aug. 12 as to whether their bid was among those accepted in this fifth herd retirement round. Once CWT field auditors inspect and accept the herds offered as part of the bidding process, farmers have 15 days in which to send their animals to a processing plant.

Farmers in 41 states submitted 609 herd retirement bids last month to CWT, reflecting "the continued financial stress that farmers in all parts of the country are facing as the cost of production has soared during the past two years," said Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of National Milk Producers Federation, which administers CWT. This latest round of CWT's milk reduction program should help strengthen farm-level prices for milk at a time when dairy producers are suffering from rising feed and fuel costs. Kozak noted that the cost of dairy feed has risen 37% between the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2008, while the cost of diesel fuel has risen 61% during the same period.

"In this retirement round, as in the previous ones, we've been careful to expend CWT funds on bids that were commensurate with current overall market prices for cows," said Kozak, who added that CWT will retain adequate funds in its budget to conduct future herd retirements, and its export assistance program, as conditions warrant.

Jim Tillison, CWT chief operating officer, noted that the average herd size and average milk output per cow were slightly under the national average for both measures. He said that further bid information, including the average price of accepted bids, won't be released until all the on-farm visits have been completed. The total number of bids initially accepted by this round includes:

Region Pounds of milk Farms accepted Number of cows Bred Heifers
Northeast 56 million 30 2,855 17
Southeast 68 million 38 4,228 172
Midwest 70 million 76 4,124 32
Southwest 84 million 36 5,189 36
West 162 million 29 9,078 101
TOTALS 440.3 million 209 25,474 358

CWT is also providing each farmer the new NMPF animal handling guidelines for the culling and transporting of dairy cattle, Kozak said.
Cooperatives Working Together is funded by dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers, who are contributing 10¢/cwt. assessment on their milk production through December 2008. The money raised by CWT's investment is being apportioned between two supply management programs that strengthen and stabilize the national all milk price. For more on CWT's activities, visit www.cwt.coop.