Contact: Dan Smith at (802) 229-1941
MONTPELIER, VT -- The Northeast Dairy Compact today released $2,389,365.41 million to dairy farmers across the northeast. This money will be distributed to the farmers who supplied Class 1 milk to the New England region on the basis of 43˘ for every hundred pounds of milk produced.
The August pool, which is paid for milk sold in the region in July 2000, for the first time reflects the supply management assessment refund program proposed by the Northeast Dairy Compact Commission and approved by the region’s producers. The program, which was proposed in response to the legislation that created the Northeast Dairy Compact, creates a reserve account that will be distributed to those producers who do not increase production by more than 1 percent over the previous year. The reserve account is created by removing 7.5˘ for every hundred pounds of milk each month when the over-order producer price exceeds 32.5˘. The money will collected from July 2000 through June 2001.
This month, $416,749.78 was put into the Supply Management Reserve. Based on past production records, the Supply Management Reserve is anticipated to add up to $4.5 million by June 2001. In addition, this month $85,458.54 was placed in reserve to reimburse the Women, Infants and Children nutrition programs for any costs attributable to the Compact. Likewise, $28,486.18 was placed in reserve to reimburse school milk programs.
The Northeast Dairy Compact was approved by Congress in 1996 to make sure farmers are not paid less than $1.46 for every gallon of milk bottled for use as a beverage. The Compact works by making up the difference between $1.46 and the federally established price for milk, which changes each month. In July, the period to which this payment applies, the federally established price for beverage milk was $1.35 per gallon.
If you have any further questions, call Dan Smith at (802) 229-1941.