Announce Milk Price Floors 

 Now^ Soys PMA Manager 



THE federal government should inj- 

 mediately announce floors for 1946 

 milk prices to sustain high production, 

 A. H. Lauterbach, manager of the Pure 

 Milk Association, Chicago, said in an 

 address Nov. 27 before the Illinois 

 Milk Producers Association. The meet- 

 ing was held in conjunction with the 

 annual sessions of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association. 



Pure Milk Association is the pro- 

 ducer cooperative through which 13,- 

 000 dairy farmers in the Chicago milk 

 shed market their milk in Chicago and 

 suburbs. 



Lauterbach expressed fear that if 

 floors were not announced soon many 

 dairymen would sell their cows and 

 produce farm products requiring less 

 labor than it takes to produce dairy 

 products. 



"Until Congress decides what it is 

 going to do about parity, the Secretary 

 of Agriculture should fix a floor under 

 butter, cheese, powdered and evapo- 

 rated milk, and some agency, such as 

 the Dairy Products Marketing Asso- 

 ciation, should take the surpluses that 

 will not sell at the fixed prices off the 

 market, using them in relief channels 

 for domestic and foreign people who 

 must have relief," he said. "We should 

 seriously consider a food stamp plan 

 for milk and other dairy products for 

 the underprivileged." 



In order to get enough production, 



Lauterbach said, dairy farmers must 

 receive a higher income in 1946 than 

 they received in 1945. 



"If subsidies are removed, which 

 they should be, consumers must pay 

 higher prices for dairy products," he 

 added. 



The PMA manager declared that 

 farm labor is harder to get now than 

 at any time during the war. Indus- 

 trial wages are higher than the dairy- 

 man can pay at present dairy prices, 

 Lauterbach explained. Dairy prices 

 must be raised high enough so that 



A. H. Lauterbach. PMA 



dairymen can pay wages comparable 

 with industry if we are to have enough 

 dairy products for consumer demand. 

 "We are now short of all dairy 

 products," he said, "because of heavy 

 consumption. If reconversion is not 

 held up too long, 1946 may be the 

 year when we will reach all-time peak 

 consumption." 



IMPA Board of Directors for 1945. left to right: V. A. Peterson, DeKalb Milk Producers; 

 Roy H. Miller, Clinton, Decatur Milk Association; William OTfalley, DeKalb, DeKalb 

 Milk Producers; I. Warren Ellis, Ridgefann, Danville Producers Dairy: Fred Patterson, 

 Horrisburg, Harrisburg Poducers Dairy; H. W. Mainland. Rocldord. Midwest Dairymen's 

 Company; John Hagenstoz, Washington, Peoria Producers Dairy; Charles Cameron, 

 Peoria, Peoria Milk Producers: O. H. Ryan, Tonica. La Salle-Peru Milk Producers; Mary 

 Merker, Chicago, office secretary; Wilfred Shaw, secretary-treasurer, IMPA; Edwin 

 Gumm, Galesburg, Galesburg Pure Milk Association; B. I. Schumacher. Altamont, San- 

 itary Milk Producers; Glen Tombaugh, Streator. Streator Milk Producers; Anthony 

 Growe. Quincy. Producers Co-op Dairy; Kenneth Ashmore, Freeport, Stephenson County 

 Pure Milk Association; L. B. Coomber, Freeport, Stephenson County Pure Milk Associo- 

 tion; J, D. Allen, Girard, Sangamon Farmers Milk Co-op: George L Maxwell, Urbana. 

 Champaign County Milk Producers; Ernest Reed, Canton. Canton Milk Producers: Harold 

 Eamm. Franklin, JacksonTille Producers Dairy. 



26 ^^ ■: - 



Ed Gumm, Knox, tolks on dairying with 

 J. L. Strohm ond Art Page of WLS 



Lauterbach also pointed out that 

 marketing agreements and orders have 

 won their spurs and are here to stay. 

 The Chicago marketing area federal 

 orders have worked beyond all expecta- 

 tions, he said, and the same can be 

 said about the federal orders in Illinois 

 and all of the United States. 



"A committee," he continued, "is 

 now working on a federal order and 

 agreement for evaporated milk cover- 

 ing the entire industry. This is still 

 in the talking stage and much work 

 has to be done between producers and 

 manufacturers of dairy products be- 

 fore a workable order can be proposed. 



"Illinois producers selling milk to 

 evaporated milk plants should become 

 organized so that they can speak as 

 a group with reference to any federal 

 orders." 



Discussing cooperatives, Lauterbach 

 said: "Cooperatives should be built 

 stronger because they will be needed 

 more than ever when we reach the 

 next recession in prices, which will 

 come when we are caught up with the 

 consumer demand for consumer goods. 

 No doubt that time will come within 

 the next three to five years. 



"Dairy producers should strive," he 

 concluded, "to become more efficient 

 by breeding better cows, doing a more 

 scientific job of feeding, and producing 

 better quality dairy products." 



During the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 

 the 23 milk producer cooperatives com- 

 prising the membership of the Illinois 

 Milk Producers' Association marketed 

 2,219,803,173 pounds of milk. 



It was the highest volume of produc- 

 tion marketed in the association's 12 

 years of operation and was an increase 

 over the previous year of 200,943,140 

 pounds or 10 per cent. Considerably 

 more than half of the fluid milk in Illi- 

 nois city markets is supplied by the Illi- 

 nois Milk Producers Association. 



Milk (3.5 per cent butterfat content) 

 marketed by the association during the 

 past fiscal year had a sale value of $68,- 

 877,326.91, which was $5,554,938.20 

 above the preceding year. 



LA. A. RECORD 



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