Dairy Cooperative Sends Out Letters With Suicide Lifeline Info

A Northeast dairy cooperative used by many New York farmers has sent out letters and contacts about suicide prevention.

See the story at http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/dairy-cooperative-sends-out-letter-with-suicide-lifeline-and-other-contacts-20180212 this link.

Agri-Mark to Invest About $30M in Franklin County Cheese Facility

From Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office:

Dairy cooperative Agri-Mark will invest nearly $30 million to expand its cheese manufacturing facility in Franklin County and retain 106 jobs in the North Country.

The expansion will enable Agri-Mark to continue to thrive and support future generations of New York dairy farmers.

"Agri-Mark's investment to expand and modernize its Chateaugay facility is a win-win for the Upstate economic," said Howard Zemsky, Empire State Development president, chief executive officer and commissioner.

The expansion and restoration of Agri-Mark's Chateaugay facility involves rebuilding the current 110,641-square-foot manufacturing facility, reengineering the layout of the facility adn purchasing new machinery and other equipment.

Empire State Development will support the dairy co-op with up to $6 million, including $4 million in Economic Transformation Program money to retain 106 full-time jobs and modernize the Chateaugay operations.  
 

Dairy Promotion Board Seeks New Members

New York State Acting Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said nominations for the New York Dairy Promotion Advisory Board, which administers the State’s Dairy Promotion Order and evaluates dairy marketing and promotion programs.  

Nominations must be received no later than April 1.

The Advisory Board consists of ten New York milk producers appointed by the Commissioner to oversee and make recommendations on the appropriate expenditure of assessments collected from New York dairy farmers that make up the State’s Dairy Promotion Order. 

Members serve a three-year term, beginning May 1. They do not receive a salary, but are entitled to reimbursement of actual expenses.

Any individual producer marketing milk in New York may be nominated to serve on the Dairy Promotion Advisory Board. Nominations can only be made by individual New York milk producers and must be submitted in writing and signed by the individual producer making the nomination. Cooperatives and other farm organizations are not authorized to nominate individual producers to the Advisory Board, but may endorse producers who are nominated.

Each nomination should provide the name and address of the producer being nominated and his or her cooperative or other organizational affiliation. Other information that is helpful in evaluating a nominee’s qualifications to serve on the Advisory Board include the producer’s herd size, milk market, participation in farm organizations or programs, and experience or interest in dairy marketing activities.

Authorized organizations can endorse nominees by submitting to the Commissioner, no later than April 8, a resolution of the board of directors or other governing body endorsing the nominations of at least two of its members whose nominations have been received.  

Authorized organizations are: Agri-Mark, Inc., Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.; Niagara Frontier Cooperative Milk Producers Bargaining Agency, Inc.; New York Farm Bureau, Inc.; New York State Grange, Inc.; and Rochester Cooperative Milk Producers Bargaining Agency, Inc.

Nominations by individual producers and endorsements by the designated cooperative and other farm organizations should be sent no later than April 1, 2014 for nominations and April 8, 2014 for endorsements to:

      New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
      Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services
      Attn: Bert Lue
      10B Airline Drive
      Albany, NY 12235

For further information on the New York State Dairy Promotion Advisory Board nomination process, please contact the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets’ Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services at 518-457-5731.

Milk producers pay 15 cents per hundredweight of milk produced for dairy promotion. The New York State Dairy Promotion Order, established to promote the consumption of New York milk and dairy products, retains 10 of the 15 cents paid by producers for contractual milk promotion activities and dairy research in the State.  The remaining 5 cents is used for national program activities. Last year, $13.4 million was collected through the State Dairy Promotion Order.

June is Dairy Month -- Cooperatives Play a Big Role in New York State Dairy

Most dairy farmers don't have the time to go out and sell their milk and dairy products to stores or manufacturing plants.

That's where dairy cooperatives come in. And some of the top dairy cooperatives in the United States are here in New York or handle milk from New York farms.

Photo from Wikipedia

One of the biggest -- often coming in at number 5 on Hoard's Dairyman's list of the top 50 cooperatives -- is Dairylea, right here in Syracuse. Others that make the list are Upstate-Niagara, Agri-Mark (Cabot Creamery Cooperative), Organic Valley/CROPP, Lowville Producers Dairy Cooperative and Cortland Bulk Milk Producers Co-Op.

The largest cooperative is Dairy Farmers of America, which has its Northeast office in East Syracuse. According to its website, the Northeast area consists of 1,467 member dairy farms, handles 3.1 billion pounds of milk annually and provides milk to customers such as Chobani, Hershey Foods, HP Hood, Great Lakes Cheese, Kraft Foods, Leprino Foods and Sorrento/Lactalis.

According to a 2007 study of cooperatives in New York done by now-retired Cornell Senior Extension Associate Brian Henehan, cooperatives have a long history in New York state, dating to the 1800s when a group of dairy farmers in Orange County got together in 1844. 

"The Orange County Milk Association was organized to represent members in bargaining for prices received for their milk from cheese processors," Henehan wrote in his story. 

Henehan said in 2007, there were 64 milk cooperatives in the state -- the most of any state. In 2003, New York accounted for 32 percent of all the dairy cooperatives in the United States, Henehan said in his study.

While most cooperatives still market farmers' milk to milk and dairy product manufacturing plants, Henehan said there are different types of cooperatives.

Photo from Cornell University

According to Henehan's study, Services and Bargaining coops offer products and services to members, while Export Cooperatives export bulk, dry milk products to other countries. Operating coops manufacture finished, branded consumer products such as cheese or fluid milk while Bargaining coops negotiate prices, coordinate collection and hauling of milk and negotiate terms of delivery of milk.

So, during Dairy Month, we all should not only thank the farmers, but also give a shout out to the cooperatives who move the milk, make sure it gets to a place to be made into milk to drink or fabulous cheese, yogurt or ice cream to eat and work to get the best price they can for their member farmers.

Go to https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=13f80c82b4a675e4&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui%3D2%26ik%3Dce9dcad029%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13f80c82b4a675e4%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbThqc0hRf7LJZaXH3sD3gg_SMWUwQ to see the Hoard's Dairyman most recent list (October 2012) of the top 50 dairy cooperatives in the United States.