By Kevin Lavery, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-884869.mp3
Clinton County, MI – Dairy producers from across the Upper Midwest are meeting in Frankenmuth today (Thursday) for the start of their annual regional conference. Farmers across the country are trying to recover from a very difficult year.
AUDIO:
Milk producers spent most of 2009 struggling with high input costs and rock-bottom prices. Milk exports dropped sharply starting in 2008 after one of the best price years on record.
The dairy industry wants the fed to enact new policies that would ease price volatility. Ken Nobis is the president of the Michigan Milk Producers Association.
"We've had what we're working with for over 60 years," Nobis says. "In a year like last year, in 2009, it would have actually put more money in a dairyman's pockets than the program that exists today."
Nobis says dairy producers need some time to refine their proposal. He adds the issue is unlikely to change before Congress takes up a new farm bill in 2012.