Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991 TAG: 9102200471
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: CHILHOWIE LENGTH: Medium
About 150 came to a meeting Monday night at Chilhowie High School to hear Bill Moore, executive director of Georgia Milk Producers for the past 20 years, discuss forming a Southeast Dairy Farmers Federation.
One reason for the sudden Virginia interest is the government's buying practices.
Don Heldreth, Wythe County's second-largest milk producer, said the government is buying so much powdered milk and cheese from just three states that producers elsewhere have seen their revenues drop drastically.
He said he was getting $16.70 per 100 pounds of milk in October and only $12.55 last month. "The stuff at the store ought to come down $1 a gallon," he said, but retail prices have not changed.
Others at the meeting complained of similar price drops, with some producers losing thousands of dollars over what they had been getting.
"We're being penalized for California, Minnesota and Wisconsin," Heldreth said. "And it's killing us. The government hadn't ought to buy a pound of it [the products from the three states]."
Moore said the federation, which already has a foothold in some states, would have both producers and dairy cooperatives as members. States involved are Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana with possible extension into Arkansas and Texas, he said.
He said the federation would like to have producers and cooperatives from at least part of Virginia. "The more of Virginia we get, the stronger we can be," he said. "But the stopper at this point . . . is we can't go without Tennessee and we need Kentucky real bad."
Moore asked the producers at the gathering to consider giving one cent for each 100 pounds of milk produced during January to support the federation's recruiting. The same thing is being asked of producers in other states, he said.
"If everybody participated, that would be up there at about $80,000, but you know not everybody's going to participate," he said. "If we get $40,000, we can travel on that."
The Southwest Virginia producers were to think about the matter and talk it over with others who were not at the meeting.
Moore said the federation would seek price premiums for producers above the price set by milk-marketing orders. It would allow dairy people in Southeastern states to "coordinate their bargaining power to obtain a fair and equitable price for milk," he said.
A goal is to enlist at least 90 percent of all milk producers eligible for fluid sale in the Southeast. The federation then would work to raise federal milk-marketing order prices in this part of the country, he said.
"Producers will maintain their relationship with their current milk buyer," he said. "There is no money to divide among our members unless we have buyers - wholesale buyers such as proprietary handlers and, ultimately, consumers."
Asked whether the success of the federation would mean higher milk prices in stores, Moore said prices might increase very slightly.
by CNB