Milk Surpluses

Archive Report

Federal Government and Milk Surplus

Reduction of Government Price Supports

Producers of milk and milk products, already suffering from over-production, under-consumption and import competition, received a new blow on April 1 when government price supports on milk and butterfat were cut from 83 to 75 per cent of parity.1 Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman told a news conference, two days before the cut went into effect, that under the Agricultural Act of 1949 price supports could be held at a level above the minimum only if the higher rate was needed to “insure an adequate supply.”

No one contends that domestic milk supplies are less than adequate to meet current demand. Despite lowering of price supports, the federal government expects to pay out $523 million to ...

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