Federal Milk Marketing Order

Milk Pricing Reform

In its priorities for national milk pricing reform, Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative is focused on strengthening the relationship between farmers and processors in a way that increases transparency, fairness and competition, and gives farmers a reasonable amount of price certainty.

The cooperative’s focus is on two principles ― flexibility and fairness. These priorities were developed through research, member discussions, participation in a multi-state task force, and engagement with processors and other stakeholders.

Edge's Class III Plus proposals

Edge also brought forth several proposals beyond its Class III Plus model, including several logical outgrowths of proposals from other groups. Edge proposals included:

• Updating the fat components alongside updated protein numbers
• Delaying any changes that would impact pooled milk prices for 15.5 months, to ensure open interest and opportunities to participate in markets are not interrupted
• Modernizing the Class III pricing system to include both blocks and barrels of Cheddar cheese, rounded to the nearest 5% of production
• Standing against make allowance increases, which equally lower milk prices for all farmers
• Improving the Class I mover by introducing the Class III Plus program, which includes the removal of advanced pricing, to price milk on America’s most-used dairy commodity – cheese

Resources