Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 10/29/10

Members of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT), the dairy farmer-funded self-help program, voted this week to focus exclusively on building export markets and no longer fund herd retirement programs.
CWT conducted its 10th and final herd retirement this past summer through which it paid farmers to slaughter 34,442 cows.

“The decision to drop the herd retirement program, but to maintain the basic structure of CWT with an exclusive focus on helping sell U.S.-made dairy products in foreign markets, allows CWT to continue making positive contributions to dairy farmers’ bottom lines,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of that National Milk Producers Federation, which administers CWT.

The decision was voted on at the NMPF annual meeting in Nevada. A presentation there by Scott Brown of the University of Missouri showed that for every one dollar spent assisting CWT member cooperatives in making export sales; U.S. dairy farmers received $15.53 in additional revenue. CWT’s export activity in 2010 has returned 18 cents per hundredweight, according to Brown’s analysis.

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