CWT bids accepted

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

Dairy cows accepted into CWT's herd retirement program will be ear-tagged (sample, above) and sold for slaughter. In East Texas, the cows can be sold through SSLC's Monday auction. -Staff photo by

September 25, 2003 -- Dairy producers who made a bid to Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) for either the herd retirement program or the reduced production marketing program will soon find out if their bid was accepted.

"We began to tag (cattle) and audit farms as of yesterday," National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) Chris Galen said on Sept. 17.

A Sept. 16 press release stated 2,552 bids for the CWT program were received from the nation's producers. Of those, 2,038 bids were for the herd retirement program (under which a producer will be paid for selling his/her herd) and 514 bids were submitted for the reduced production marketing (RPM) program (under which producers will contract for a year to reduce their farm's milk output from 10 percent to 50 percent).

Of the CWT numbers, Region 4 (which incudes Texas), 361 bids were received for the herd retirement and 81 bids for the RPM.

The program combinations will take approximately 669 million pounds of milk out of production, according to NMPF.

The programs are targeted to give milk producers an average increase in the All Milk Price of 36 cents per hundredweight (cwt). The program is funded by a five-cent per hundredweight assessment paid by the milk producers.

Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of NMPF, stated in the news release that approximately 33,000 cows will be culled due to the herd retirement program. These cows will have to go to slaughter, and will be marked with a pink CWT ear tag which are sequentially numbered with a unique number.

East Texas milk producers who have their bids accepted will be able to take their cull cattle to Sulphur Springs Livestock Commission (SSLC), after several appeals where made to NMPF by SSLC, local dairymen, and the Livestock Marketing Association.

On Sept. 18, David Fowler, co-owner of SSLC, said, "It took a little work to convince them (NMPF) we could handle the cattle. But, they were going to make a big mistake if the cows were sent directly to the packer. That would have cost the dairyman, and the program, a lot of money" since the nearest packers are in San Antonio or San Angelo.

As far as producers in the Central Texas area, Troy Moore, owner of the Stephenville Livestock Commission said, on Sept. 17, "We could make sure the cattle would go to slaughter, but no one has told us anything of what the procedure would be for the CWT cows."

An important note, Fowler pointed out, is accepted CWT cows taken to SSLC will be sold during the Monday sale, and not the dairy sale on Thursday.

When asked about whether CWT's herd retirement program would hurt the beef industry, Fowler stated that 33,000 cows across the United States was not a lot of cows.

"They won't all hit the market at one time, so it won't overload the market. We can handle it," he added.