Mooney and Mulhern Celebrate Unity at the 2023 Joint Annual Dairy Meetings
Last week in Orlando, Fla., National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) Chairman Randy Mooney spoke about the ongoing challenges dairy farmers face that cause a lot of stress on the farm, including the razor-thin operating. Despite the mountain of challenges, Mooney remains optimistic about the unity of the industry.
“I’ve dairied for a long time, through good times and bad times, but there’s never been a time that I haven’t laid my head down on my pillow at night and been proud of what I accomplished on my farm,” Mooney said. “We’re nourishing families around the world through milk’s unbeatable nutritional value.”
Mooney was inspired that as an industry, farmers and professionals came together and united on a number of issues, including getting farmers to testify at the USDA-led Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearings, which began in August and will resume Nov. 27 after a temporary pause.
“The producers who got the opportunity to tell the story made a difference,” he said, in reference to those producers who testified at the FMMO hearings.
Passing the Baton
NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern, who is retiring at the end of this year after leading the organization for a decade, also took the stage at the joint annual meetings in Orlando, underscoring that working on behalf of the nation’s dairy farmers and their cooperatives has been the highlight of his professional career.
“I’ve tried to remain true to what I see as the hallmark of the dairy community: people who work hard, approach things with common sense, and care passionately about the product they produce,” Mulhern said. “You all strive to do the right thing. And I can tell you, looking over the course of my career, those are qualities that can take you a very long way.”
Mulhern points out he is bullish on the future of the dairy industry and is proud to pass the baton off to Greg Doud, former chief agricultural negotiator for the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative. His efforts helped lead the U.S.-China “Phase One” agreement and the USMCA negotiations.
“Greg is no stranger to agriculture. He's got an incredible pedigree. He knows policy from the inside and knows how Washington works. And he's going to be a great leader for the future of this industry. I couldn't be more excited about him taking over,” he says.
Elections
Also at the meeting, NMPF’s Board of Directors approved the organization’s policy positions and elected new members. New directors elected and approved by NMPF delegates include Brad Bateman of Dairy Farmers of America and Rick Burkhamer of Foremost Farms. Burkhamer, who farms near Richland Center, WI, was also named to NMPF’s Executive Committee.
Along with adopting official federal policy positions, NMPF’s membership also raised funds for the organization’s college research scholarships and held its annual cheese and dairy product contest in conjunction with the meeting.
Cheese Awards
The Chairman’s Award for the NMPF Cheese and Yogurt Contest went to Prairie Farms Dairy for its Cave Aged Rinded Swiss, produced in Faribault, MN. Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery won the Chairman’s Reserve Award for its Pepperoni with Marinara Rub produced in Menomonie, WI. This year’s contest included 252 entries from 14 participating NMPF co-ops, a total of 3,350 pounds of cheese and yogurt.
