WCMA Statement on Federal Order Approval

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that dairy farmers and cooperatives have voted to support proposed order changes in every federal milk marketing order. The final amended orders now appear online in the Federal Register. John Umhoefer, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA), issued the following statement:

“We’re pleased to see that dairy farmers and farm cooperatives nationwide have adopted changes to the federal milk pricing system. Our dairy manufacturer members offered useful data on costs to produce the key dairy products cited in milk price formulas, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) staff acted decisively and impartially to use this data to update the 16-year-old formulas. The entire industry agrees that, moving forward, cost of production surveys should be executed regularly by USDA staff to align current production costs with current milk pricing. The five to seven cent per pound make allowance increases in this final order help modernize milk pricing, but already reflect three-year-old production data from 2022. The dairy industry will benefit from Congressional action to move forward a delayed Farm Bill, which offers language empowering USDA to execute regular cost of production surveys in the future.”

Most changes contained in the final orders will take effect June 1, 2025. One change, related to the implementation of revised skim milk composition factors, will take effect December 1, 2025.