From Canadian Animal Net
Dairy farmers to slaughter more cows
December 11, 2004
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. National Milk Producers Federation will,
according to this story, pay farmers to send nearly 52,000 cows to
slaughter over the next few months, removing 931 million pounds of
milk, or 0.55 percent, from the nation's supply, in an effort to keep
milk prices up.
The story says this is the second year that the group is paying
farmers to reduce the amount of milk on the market, one of several
factors that helped push milk prices to record highs this year,
following 25-year lows the previous year. The story adds that other
factors included lower production of Monsanto's growth hormone and
the banning of livestock from Canada after a case of mad cow disease
was discovered there last year.
Chris Galen, the federation's vice president of communications, was
cited as saying the program was popular among farmers and that
participants pay a 5-cent assessment on every 100 pounds of milk
produced to fund the program.
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Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
