GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 905 



parity index of 245, the parity price for today can easily be figured 

 as well as the price to the producer, and the price reflected back to 

 the farmer, if they really wished to follow the law. It is easy to 

 translate this cheese price to milk on the farms. 



Farmers selling milk for cheese are being underpaid at least 30 cents 

 per hundred. This also goes for other manufactured dairy products. 

 So I say, let first things be first, and follow the provisions of the law 

 now in effect until January 1, 1950. The sooner the Agricultural 

 Department announces a support price for milk for cheese in accord- 

 ance with the present law, the sooner we would be interested in future 

 promises. There is no sense in listening to promises of higher prices 

 when we cannot get the performance needed to carry out the provisions 

 of the present law. 



After the provisions of the present law are complied with and put 

 into efi'ect until January 1, 1950, I feel that the National Grange has 

 offered the most constructive long-range program and their proposals 

 should receive support. 



The Brannan program as it applies to manufactured milk is just as 

 imfair as the formula being used by the Agricultural Department at 

 the present time. In fact, I would say this is unfair and is absurd. 

 It shows a lack of knowledge and information regarding the dairy 

 business. This is nothing new. For example, the proposed $4.22 

 per hundred average price for milk sounds fine, but will it stand 

 analysis. If $4.22 per hundred is to be the national support price, 

 and 67 cents per pound is to be the support for butterfat, just where 

 do you think the milk used for manufacturing purposes will find itself? 

 This is the position we are in today, except it will be worse. $4.22 

 for 100 pounds of 3.5 percent milk means $1.20 per pound for butter 

 fat. 



Over 50 percent of the milk produced in the United States is used 

 for manufactured dairy products, but I will use just 50 percent in 

 order to give the Brannan plan the benefit. If the average is to be 

 $1.20 per pound for butterfat and one-half is to bring 67 cents, the 

 milk for bottles then would have a support of $1.73 per pound for 

 butterfat. Does this proposal have merit? No, it is just more of the 

 same medicine. 



I can make good cheese only out of good clean milk. The spread 

 in price between milk for bottling purposes and for manufacturing 

 purposes should be comparatively small. In the past the difl'erence 

 has been way out of line. Clean milk can be produced as cheaply as 

 dirty milk, and all bottled milk is not always carefully produced. 

 Cheese is now being made from grade "A" milk in my State, and 

 millions of pounds of grade "B" milk are being marketed in bottles 

 at much higher prices. 



In conclusion, let me say first, that we want the present law followed, 

 and second, that we want fair consideration given in the long-range 

 support program. We do not want a Brannan program that gives 

 one group of milk producers a support price that is over twice as much 

 as that provided for other milk, which is just as clean and desirable 

 as the milk supported at the higher price. We have seen the price 

 of hogs cut in half to the farmer without any reflection in prices of 

 pork in the meat markets, so almost anyone should be able to see that 

 millions of dollars will be wasted when all food prices are politically 

 tampered with. It is evident that price controls are needed to enforce 



