Grange member Charlie Seidel, a dairy farmer from Berks County, testified before the PA Milk Marketing Board this morning.  “The Grange is asking that the PA Milk Marketing Board set the over-order premium at the current $1.55 per hundredweight,” Seidel told the Board.

Mr. Seidel milks 50 registered Holstein cows and farms 120 acres, growing corn and alfalfa hay, but he explained, “My total income is from dairy production and a small number of bull/heifer calf sales.”  He said, “I ship 2,500 pounds of milk per day with a herd average of 18,000 pounds per cow.” Continuing, he told the PMMB, “Because my milk is produced, processed, and sold in PA, I directly receive the PA Milk Marketing Board over-order premium.”

Seidel provided the Board with some statistics saying, “The PA Agricultural Statistics Service Special Dairy Report for the first quarter of 2005 stated that PA wholesale milk prices for the 12 month period of March 2004 to February 2005 averaged $18.02 per hundredweight which was 25.75% above the same time period a year earlier.”  He went on to say, “The report also stated that the milk production costs averaged $13.84 per hundredweight for the same 12 month period, increasing 2.4 percent more than production costs a year ago.”

“Finally,” he told the Board, “milk production in PA during the first quarter of 2005 totaled 2.56 billion pounds, up 1.0% from the comparable period last year.  Milk production per cow increased by 23 pounds, but there were 3,000 fewer head than last year.” 

Mr. Seidel explained several significant numbers in these statistics by saying, “The first is that even though milk prices are high, production in PA has not increased dramatically and there are fewer cows in PA.  That means farmers are not responding to the higher prices by increasing their cow numbers or their production of milk in the Commonwealth.”

“The PA Milk Marketing Board already knows that PA dairy farmers are eternal optimists,” Charlie told them.  “We are in the throws of a new planting season and we all hope for maximum crop yields and for milk prices to remain constant.”  “For that to happen, however” he continued, “the PMMB will have to keep the over-order premium at $1.55 per hundredweight.”

He closed his testimony by saying, “We do not believe that the milk market has suffered from the current over-order premium.  In fact, PA is still a milk deficit state.”  Finally, he said, “We do not believe that either production or price will change significantly, in part because of the continued closing of the Canadian border.”

The Grange is a family fraternal organization dedicated to the betterment of rural America through community service, education, legislation and fellowship.  The Grange includes members of all ages from their Junior Grangers (ages 5-14), Youth Members (ages 14-24), Young Adults (ages 21-35) and Regular Community (Local) members (age 14 and up).  The Grange represents approximately 16,000 Pennsylvanians across the Commonwealth.  It is the oldest agricultural organization of its kind in the United States. The National Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), representing about 300,000 members, began in 1867 and the PA State Grange was chartered in 1873.