Brian Rexing doesn’t mince words when he talks about why he leaves his Indiana dairy farm to spend time in Washington, D.C.
“It’s right here,” said the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) chairman at the organization’s annual meeting, pointing to a photo of his adult children — including two who’ve chosen to stay in dairy farming. “It’s not about me. The next generation is going to face challenges just like us, and we can’t solve them all, but we’ve got to set them up to solve them.”
That mission has never been more urgent — or more complicated.
As dairy producers gathered in Florida to celebrate hard-won victories on whole milk in schools and record-breaking export growth, NMPF CEO Gregg Doud delivered a sobering reality check: the political landscape is about to undergo its most dramatic transformation in half a century.
83 New Members of Congress: Unprecedented Challenge
“I don’t know if you realize this or not, but we’re going to have at least 83 new members of Congress next year, maybe close to 100 by the time we’re done,” Doud told the room. “I don’t think that’s happened since the 1970s, folks.”
Out of 435 House members, that represents a nearly one-quarter turnover in a single election cycle — an unprecedented challenge for an industry that depends on Capitol Hill relationships built over years, sometimes decades.
“The unprecedented challenge that we have on Capitol Hill next year is to find folks that are going to carry water for the dairy industry in Washington,” Doud said. “It is going to take all of us to deal with this.”
With labor reform, nutrition policy battles and trade relationships all hanging in the balance, dairy needs champions in Congress who understand the industry’s unique challenges — and farmers can’t assume those champions will emerge on their own.
“We will work with anyone we can find that is willing to take up the cause of this industry, regardless of their political stripes,” Doud emphasized. “I don’t care what side of the aisle they’re on, as long as they’re willing to pick up the mantle and take the hill for us.”
Labor: The 40-Year Wait May Finally Be Ending
If you talk to any dairy farmer for five minutes, the labor issue comes up. It’s been that way for decades.
“The last time we talked about a labor bill and labor reform and actually accomplished it in the United States was 1986 — 40 years ago,” Doud noted.
But something fundamental has shifted in Washington.
“We’ve said it for years and years: dairy does not have a seasonal labor problem. We have a workforce problem, 365 days a year,” Doud explained. “We have never had a visa program built for dairy farms.”
Now, finally, Congress is listening. House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson has introduced what Doud calls “one of the best bills that we’ve ever seen on this. Is it perfect? No. But it is a huge step forward in this conversation.”
More importantly, the conversation itself has changed.
“We have more offices than ever on Capitol Hill that understand the difference between seasonal ag and the labor needs on a dairy farm,” Doud said. “How do you do that, folks? Simple: shoe leather lobby, walking the halls, spending the time, building the relationships.”
The progress didn’t happen overnight and it’s not finished.
“I’ve been in Washington 35 years,” Doud said. “I understand that these things take time, folks. But we’ve got to stay on it. We’re not going to be done on this issue until the dairies in this country can find and keep a legal, stable workforce.”
The Whole Milk Victory: Down to Two Senators
When Doud stood before dairy farmers a year ago, he went out on a limb with a prediction: whole milk would return to schools.
“Since I told you that a year ago, it’s been pretty darn stressful in Washington,” he admitted.
The path to victory came down to securing unanimous consent from 100 U.S. senators — a nearly impossible bar in today’s polarized political climate. At one point, they were down to just two holdouts.
“I want to thank Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas and Chairman Boozman. I can’t tell you how many phone calls, how many late nights to get those two senators in the boat and get that done,” Doud said.
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act became law in January — a remarkable accomplishment already making waves at the local level.
Rexing shared a story from his home community: “We just sponsored an event at home that had a cross-country meet where all the kids, when they crossed the finish line, they got a serving of whole milk. Unbelievable the response we got. They just couldn’t believe how good milk could taste.”
His challenge to the room: “Let’s everybody in this room make an effort to do something like that — to introduce that product to somebody that maybe doesn’t have it, because it’s important.”
Ultra-Processed Food: The Battle Raging in Every State
Last year, Doud predicted that ultra-processed food would become the next big policy battleground. He was right — but even he didn’t anticipate how quickly it would spread.
At the federal level, a bill has been introduced requiring up to four front-of-pack warning labels — including on whole milk, cheese and most yogurts.
“You could have a situation where you could have an ultra-processed label and a healthy label on the same carton of yogurt,” Doud said. “This makes no sense.”
But the real chaos is happening at the state level, where every state is creating its own definitions and requirements. California passed a 2025 law creating the nation’s first official certification seal for non-ultra-processed products. Texas is developing its own approach. Multiple other states are following suit with conflicting definitions.
“Every state is different. This is crazy for all of us,” Doud said.
The good news? There are, as Doud put it, “adults in the room.”
During a White House meeting with NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), administration officials acknowledged the absurdity of the situation.
“The comment that was made to us was: ‘We cannot create a situation where 80% of the food on the grocery store shelf is somehow deemed as not good for our consumers,’” Doud recounted. “And our reaction to that was: You think?”
The Office of Management and Budget was directed to reconsider the approach, and the issue has “kind of gone back to the drawing board.”
But dairy can’t let its guard down.
“This year, we came within an eyelash of having chocolate milk banned in schools in West Virginia, folks,” Doud revealed. “It was all hands on deck. You just can’t let that thing get started, or it goes everywhere.”
Trade: On Pace for $10.5 Billion in Exports
While domestic policy battles rage, U.S. dairy is quietly achieving something remarkable in export markets.
“Our record for U.S. dairy exports the last four years is $9.5 billion,” Doud said. “I don’t know if you guys realize it or not: We’re on pace for $10.5 billion this year — a record by a billion dollars.”
That growth didn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of decades of relationship-building, market development and persistent advocacy by the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and NMPF.
Doud recently traveled to Ottawa for a panel discussion on Canadian television, telling a room full of academics and political operatives: “I come in peace.”
“They are wound up on this issue up there,” he said. “My message was very simple: Canada is our second-biggest market. It’s very important for us. We value this relationship. But you know, we’ve got other markets that we’re working on too.”
The Indonesia Opportunity
One of those “other markets” could be a game-changer: Indonesia.
“That’s 290 million people with an economy that is about where Mexico was 20 or 30 years ago,” Doud explained. “Their per capita incomes are exploding. Their consumption of milk and proteins is just incredibly low relative to most of the rest of the world. What an enormous opportunity for us going forward!”
What makes the Indonesia opportunity particularly significant: they approached U.S. dairy, not the U.S. government.
“They’ve come to us and talked about working on helping them get milk in schools,” Doud said. “They didn’t come to our government. They came to us. This, to me, is the next generation of all this.”
For many NMPF members, export markets have shifted from “nice to have” to “essential.”
The Rowing Team Analogy
Rexing opened his remarks with a story about the movie “The Boys in the Boat,” which tells the true story of a junior varsity rowing team during the Great Depression that won the 1936 Olympics.
The secret? They agreed to work together — all doing four paddle strokes every 10 seconds, perfectly synchronized.
“They were no different than any other team, other than they were eight gentlemen with a captain that convinced them that working together they could accomplish anything,” Rexing said. “That’s what I feel like we can do working together.”
It’s a fitting metaphor for an industry that’s achieved remarkable victories through collaboration — between policy and promotion, between national and state organizations, between farmers and processors, between Democrats and Republicans.
Two Halves Made Whole
That spirit of collaboration was on full display as leadership transitions unfold across dairy’s national organizations.
Rexing shared a conversation he’d had with incoming DMI CEO Corey Scott before the meeting began.
“Corey said, ‘You know, there’s really two halves to this industry: policy and promotion,’” Rexing recounted. “And Corey and I decided we need to make that whole, because we all have different roles, but we all have a common goal. We want to help dairy farmers succeed.”
The collaboration between NMPF and IDFA is another example of organizations rowing in sync.
“A little-known fact: IDFA and National Milk actually work really well together,” Doud revealed. “We’ve made tremendous progress together, especially on some of these crazy ultra-processed food issues.”
Investing in the Next Generation
Both Rexing and Doud emphasized the critical importance of developing the next generation of dairy leaders through programs like Young Cooperators, scholarship initiatives and DMI’s Emerging Leaders Program.
“Over and over in my career as a 4-H guy and a former state FFA officer, you’ve got to develop these leaders in agriculture,” Doud said. “That way, you’ve got a bench.”
For Rexing, the motivation is deeply personal.
“I had no idea when I got adult children that would take an interest in what you do, I had no idea how good that was going to feel,” he said, his voice catching with emotion. “Our job is to build a strong foundation so they have an opportunity to succeed.”
The Charge: Show Up and Tell Your Story
As the meeting drew to a close, both Rexing and Doud issued the same challenge to dairy farmers: engagement matters now more than ever.
“Just when you think you’re falling on deaf ears, you have to keep going,” Rexing said. “You cannot stop sharing our stories with policymakers, inviting them to our farms, showing the real impact of the decisions they make.”
He recounted conversations with legislators in D.C.: “I’ve had several congressmen say, ‘Hearing it from you is what is important.’ That’s what we have to continue to do.”
Doud’s message echoed the same theme: with more than 83 new members of Congress coming to Washington, dairy farmers can’t afford to sit on the sidelines.
“With 83 new ones, sifting and sorting the wheat from the chaff and finding anyone that will carry the water for us on labor issues, on trade issues, all of the things we need to be successful — this is going to be a monumental undertaking, period,” he said.
The meeting also marked the end of an era, with three longtime industry leaders stepping down: Jaime Castaneda (27 years at NMPF), Barbara O’Brien (25 years with DMI, five as CEO) and Michael Dykes (CEO of IDFA).
“Three really big sets of shoes to fill,” Doud acknowledged. “But here’s the thing about this industry: it always produces the next generation of leaders.”
For dairy producers navigating unprecedented challenges — labor shortages, policy battles, market volatility — the message from Orlando was clear: the work ahead requires everyone rowing in the same direction, at the same pace, toward a common goal.
Just like the boys in the boat.
