The Spring 2012 letter to State dairy farmers from the Commissioner of Agriculture stated: -The Connecticut Dairy sustainability program relies on cost of production (COP) estimates, historically provided by the USDA -The Act states that when the federal pay price for milk drops bellow the...

The branded integration strategy is not new. Recall that Agrimark owned Hood in a joint venture with Agway for many years. It did not work for many reasons, including the fact that Agrimark was prohibited by the U.S. Justice Department from direct representation on the Hood board of directors....

Our recent meeting provided a factual basis for analysis of alternative milk policies. We analyzed the cost of production on farms, in processing, and in retailing. We collected and analyzed prices at the retail, wholesale, and farm level. This exercise gave us a rare glimpse into the...

Since November of 2002, the Food Marketing Policy Center has periodically conducted price surveys of milk in New York and Southern New England (Cotterill, et. al. 2002; Rabinowitz, et. al. 2003;Cotterill 2003). Results of these surveys, when coupled with data on the underlying cost of the raw milk, have...

Last November, the Food Marketing Policy Center conducted a survey of retail milk prices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and parts of southeast New York (Cotterill, et al., 2002). That look at the price distribution over space aided in answering several questions regarding milk...

At the outset we would like to thank the Committee on the Environment for the opportunities to submit this written testimony and to address the Committee on an important issue today. Milk pricing in New England and Massachusetts has been contentious for several years because of two interrelated...

The proposed Connecticut milk pricing law for milk establishes two price collars. The general concept is as follows. Wholesale fluid milk prices will be limited to no more than 140% of the raw fluid price, and retail prices will be limited to no more than 140% of the wholesale price. These 140%...

Farmers want to know how this proposed law will benefit them. This briefing paper explains in a general fashion how the proposed law benefits farmers. Actual benefits from the law will depend critically on the detailed regulations that the Commission promulgates. Those details will include the...

In our prior papers, most notably the report dated April 23, 2002 by Cotterill, et. al. We have proposed that the retail price collar be set at 130% and that it be applied only to private label milk. In this briefing paper we will justify the setting of the retail price collar at 130% and...

The basic proposition of a fair share milk pricing policy program is the following: Retail milk prices during the low phase of the raw milk price cycle and possibly during the entire raw milk price cycle are high relative to raw milk prices. The large marketing spread is not due to excessive...