Third herd retirement for 2009 announced

Cooperatives Working Together is implementing its third herd retirement in 2009, effective today.

All bids submitted must be postmarked no later than Oct. 15. This is the fourth herd retirement that CWT has conducted in the past 12 months.

“The herd retirement of late 2008, plus the two herd retirements so far in 2009, have removed 226,000 cows from the nation’s dairy herds,” said Jerry Kozak, president and chief executive officer of the National Milk Producers Federation, which manages Cooperatives Working Together.

“Those efforts have helped adjust the supply of milk more in line with demand. This third herd retirement of 2009, along with a stabilizing global economy, should further accelerate the recovery in dairy farmers’ prices,” he said.

As with past herd retirements, producers wishing to submit bids into the program must have been members of CWT, either through their membership in a CWT member cooperative or as an individual, effective January 2009. Producers whose bids were selected in previous herd retirements will not be eligible to bid again. This round will once again include a bred heifer option.

The maximum bid CWT will consider is $5.25 per hundredweight of milk, which was the same bid ceiling as the previous round. CWT will select bids beginning with the lowest bid with consistent milk production.

However, given budgetary considerations, there is no guarantee that every producer submitting a bid up to the maximum $5.25 bid level will be accepted, said CWT's chief operating office Jim Tillison.