Upon being appointed to the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board in June 2018, Rob Barley and I were constantly questioned about cooperatives and over-order premium payments to their members. Jim Van Blarcom confirmed that this had been an issue since his tenure on the board as well.
There were three areas of focus for some producers.
They didnât know if they were receiving any OOP payments, they didnât know if Pennsylvania OOP payments were going to non-Pennsylvania producers, and they didnât know if the board could force co-ops to pay their producers the same way independent producers pay farmers from whom they buy milk.
Arden Tewskbury
Donna Hall was a spark plug and a workhorse all put together. Donna was the kind of a person who comes along once in a great while. She was a very kind person; she was a philosopher who had more knowledge concerning dairy farmers’ problems and their potential solutions then most people would ever think about.
I first met Donna in the early 1990s at a Pro-Ag information meeting at the school in Lairdsville. As we progressed with the meeting, I realized that there was a lady who sat down at the end of the table in a packed meeting room. As I began to explain different things about our dairy farmers’ problems, she would “pipe up” and wanted to know what we were going to do about these problems. She did not hesitate one minute to keep firing many questions at me.
Jan 21, 2021 Members of the Lycoming County Grange salute all of our local dairy farmers and pledge to support Pro-Ag in their efforts to return whole milk to our schools. After listening to Pro-Ag Manager Arden Tewksbury predicting prices paid to dairy farmers on January’s milk could drop to $15.50 per cwt. (hundred pounds), directors and members of Pro-Ag passed the following resolutions during their conference call: ⢠Be it resolved that Pro-Ag supports the introduction and passage of the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act. This bill would price milk on the national average cost of production as determined by the Economic Research Service, a division of the USDA. This bill would also develop a supply management program to be used only when needed.