FEBRUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Milk board ups dairy quota


by DAVID SCHMIDT


ABBOTSFORD – BC milk producers got another 3% quota increase at the beginning of January and there could be more increases on the way.


“We still need way more milk,” BC Milk Marketing Board director Tom Hoogendoorn told Mainland Milk Producers at their annual meeting in Abbotsford on January 6. “Production hasn’t caught up to demand yet,” he said, noting the Canadian Dairy Commission is projecting another 4% growth in demand for the next year. The demand is all coming from the industrial side as fluid sales continue their slow decline. In the 12-month period ending October 15, Canadian retail fluid milk sales dropped 1.2%. In contrast, cheese sales increased 5.1%, cream sales increased 4.2%, yogurt was up 3.4%, ice cream increased 3.1% and butter sales increased 2.5%.


Since processors are crying


for all the milk they can get, no one in Canada is currently being penalized for over- production.


Even though producers received 7% in quota increases last year, the number of litres per day they are shipping is actually less than a year earlier. That’s because producer quotas are issued as kilograms of butterfat and the butterfat percentage has been going up even faster than the quotas.


Although the formula used to determine producer milk pricing is calling for a reduction in the price of butterfat when prices are adjusted February 1, Hoogendoorn says the BCMMB intends to apply the decrease against the price of protein (solids-non fat) in hopes it will encourage producers to manage their feeding programs to increase the ratio of butterfat to protein in their milk. The more butterfat


processors use, the more low- FILE PHOTO


value skim milk powder (SNF) they generate, so anything which can be done to reduce protein levels is going to benefit producers’ blend price.


The new ingredient strategy to come into effect February 1 is intended to address the skim milk powder issue.


“We can’t force processors to use Canadian milk but we


hope to price (the new) Class 7 (primarily skim milk powder and SNF) at a price point where they will choose to buy Canadian,” Hoogendoorn said.


Insurance issues The BCMMB also


conducted an online survey of producers’ liability insurance during January.


“Your liability doesn’t end at the farmgate,”


Hoogendoorn reminded producers, saying the intent of the survey is to determine how much liability insurance, if any, producers are carrying, and whether it would be useful for the industry to develop a group insurance program.


“We want to determine what the real risk is to the dairy industry,” Hoogendoorn said.


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