PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Monday, September 29, 1997

E. Texas dairy farmers worry over federal milk marketing change

JACKSONVILLE, Texas (AP) -- East Texas dairy farmers are worried that a pending federal change will place them at a competitive disadvantage with southwestern farmers and further strain small operators.

However, some East Texas agricultural experts say the farmers' anxiety may be misplaced.

The 1996 federal farm bill directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consolidate the zones it uses to set prices dairy processors pay for milk.

Texas currently has 11 of those zones, called milk market orders. Under the USDA's preliminary consolidation plan, the entire nation will be divided into 11 zones, with Texas and New Mexico in the same zone.

Already distressed by falling milk prices and last year's drought, East Texas farmers say the consolidation will place them at a competitive disadvantage to West Texas and New Mexico dairy farms.

Humidity puts more stress on dairy cows in East Texas, reducing milk production, farmers said. Also, alfalfa flourishes in West Texas and New Mexico, allowing farmers there to run larger and more productive herds than East Texas farmers, whose smaller herds graze largely on coastal grass.

"They would dominate the market," said Martha Parsley, who runs a dairy farm with her husband near New Summerfield.

"They would be able to cut better deals and move us out of the market," she told the Jacksonville Daily Progress for Sunday's editions. "If they end up controlling the market, that's going to be the end of the family farm."

East Texas dairy farmers want to be placed in the same pricing zone as the Southeastern states, which have a climate similar to East Texas'. The Southeast zone pays about a dollar more per 100 pounds of Class I bottled milk, the best.

In Hopkins County, which has more than 40 percent of the dairies in the 50-county East Texas region, business and community leaders are coordinating a regionwide letter-writing campaign to urge the USDA to reconsider zoning East Texas with southwestern dairies.

But Cherokee County agricultural extension agent Jack White says such a campaign may be shortsighted.

Since most farmers belong to cooperatives, the price they get for milk is affected by revenue from more than one market, he said. Also affecting prices is the percentage of milk from lower classifications, like that used to process cheese, he said.

White believes it doesn't matter much where milk comes from. Furthermore, he said, reclassifying East Texas with the Southeast could do more harm than good. It could entice West Texas and New Mexico dairies to market their milk in Houston to get the higher Southeast price, driving out the small East Texas farmer, he said.

"We're concerned that the USDA may drop all milk (market) orders," he said. "If that happens, we won't have a free-market system anymore. We'll have a few dairies controlling the market, and all the smaller ones -- like we have in Cherokee County -- won't be able to compete.' "