Registration Open for Industry-Wide Federal Milk Marketing Order Forum

Aug 03, 2022

Prompted by a call from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to get as many people involved in dairy as possible in one room to discuss solutions to Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) shortfalls, the American Farm Bureau Federation is hosting a forum Oct. 14-16 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Federal Milk Marketing Order Forum will include panels on various aspects of Federal Milk Marketing Orders followed by roundtable discussions structured to spur conversation among all parts of the dairy sector, but with a clear focus on farmers.

The panel sessions will cover the origins and purposes of FMMOs, Class I, Class III and Class IV pricing issues, and simplifying FMMOs.

“Meaningful changes to the FMMO system are long overdue,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “Even before the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how volatile milk prices and outdated milk pricing and pooling provisions were harming dairy farmers, it was clear the FMMO system needs modernizing to address consolidation in the processing business, shifting consumer preferences and fluctuating trade demands.”

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.