FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 14, 2010

Professional Dairy Managers Of Pennsylvania Offers June Program On Milk Pricing and Your Milk Check

Bellefonte, PA – Two topics that are sure to get a reaction from Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers are milk pricing and the check they receive for the milk they produce. The Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania is recognizing the need to help dairy producers understand and manage their milk income with a special workshop beginning at 8:30 am on Thursday, June 3 in Elliottsburg, PA.

In planning this year’s first Dairy Industry Issue Forum, PDMP President Glenn Gorrell said, “Dairy producers everywhere are talking about the volatility of the milk market and the discrepancy between the cost to produce milk and what the farmer receives. The objective of this program is to help the farmer to be better informed on how milk pricing works and how it got that way, and then to help them understand their actual milk check when it arrives.”

To bring those factors into focus PDMP has enlisted respected industry experts in a multi-pronged approach. The morning educational program on “Milk Pricing and Your Milk Check” will be followed by an afternoon tour of Duane and June Hertzler’s Moo Echo Farms in Loysville, PA

Dr. Mark W. Stephenson will open with his discussion on milk pricing as someone who has walked among the decision makers. He is a well known authority on dairy finances and his background as a professor in applied economics and management at Cornell University has put him in a unique position to explain the ins and outs of milk pricing.

His presentation will be followed by a briefing on what the dairy industry is doing to bring about changes in pricing to benefit the producer. Both PDMP Executive Director Alan Novak and Dennis Wolff of Versant Strategies work for dairy producers to carry their message in daily contact with legislators and regulators on the Federal and state level.

Dairymen say one of the most confusing issues is how milk pricing translates to the milk check. Carl Herbein’s firm, Herbein+Company, Inc. of Reading, PA, handles accounts with cooperatives, milk processors, and dairy farms. He has seen how the milk check is developed from the inside out. He realizes the producer’s objective is to get more, but first they must understand where they are now by having a better grasp of what all the numbers on the actual milk check mean.

To conclude the program, Brad Hilty will give attendees a major take-home. He will explain the spreadsheet he has developed that helps a farmer look a the components of the milk check and see in clear terms how changes in operations can increase income. He consults regularly with dairy farmers as Business Informatics and Decisions Systems Specialist with the Penn State Dairy Alliance, an initiative of cooperative extension.

PDMP is offering “Milk Pricing and Your Milk Check” to position dairy farmers to make better personal decisions about their operations and empower them to take action. The $25 per person fee for PDMP members is designed to make it possible for a farm’s entire operation team can attend. To help producers who do not hold PDMP membership, the organization continues its offer allowing a non-member to attend one Issue Forum at the member rate. The standard non-member fee is $75 per person. Online registration is available at PDMP’s website.

PDMP is an organization of progressive, positive-minded dairy producers and agribusiness leaders. Its mission is to advance the dairy industry in Pennsylvania through improved productivity and profitability. This program is being made possible in part through the support of PDMP Premier Partners: Acuity Advisors and CPAs, AgChoice Farm Credit, Cargill Animal Nutrition, Elanco Animal Health, Lancaster Dairy Farm Automation, Lancaster DHIA, Land O’Lakes, Pennfield Dairy Profitability Team, Pfizer Animal Health, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and Triple H Construction. For more information on PDMP, visit their website at www.pdmp.org or email info@pdmp.org.