Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Secretary Vilsack:
As you are aware, family dairy farms across the U.S. are currently facing the most difficult
economic conditions in the modern history of the country's dairy industry. Here in New York, the
average price that dairy farmers have received for their milk in October is $11.01 per hundredweight
(cwt.) which is an 84 cents/cwt. slide from May and a $7.84/cwt. decrease from June of last year.
Over the last several weeks, our Conference has held dairy rallies in Chenango, Genesee and
Washington counties urging our Governor, David Paterson, to release $150 million in much-needed
funding for New York's struggling family dairy farmers.
The farmers we spoke with all told us the same thing - they are being paid prices catastrophically
below the price of production for milk. Many dairy producers have been forced to max out loans, sell
their cows and lay off valued workers in an attempt to keep their farms in business. The dairy
industry in New York State is in serious danger of collapsing and our family dairy farms need
immediate financial help to ensure that they can continue to make a living and have a profitable
business to pass along to their children.
For these reasons, we respectfully request that you move the $290 million in direct assistance to
dairy farmers as quickly as possible through the existing Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program.
We also ask that you either double the cap rate or double the payment rate to 90 percent of the MILC
program. All producers who have been actively farming in 2009 should be eligible for payments
regardless of whether or not they have capped out of MILC, and direct payments should reflect a
retroactive MILC payment for the past two months, discounting any payments that already have been
distributed.
These actions would help to save one of the nation's most important industries before we lose more
farms to these crippling economic times. We thank you in advance for your consideration of this
important matter, and we look forward to working with you to support family dairy farms.
If you would like to discuss our ideas in greater detail, please feel free to contact us at your
convenience.
Sincerely,
Brian M. Kolb
Member, NYS Assembly
Minority Leader
(315) 781-2030
