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Dairy Farmers of Untario is looking at various ways of making charges more equitable BY JIM ROMAHN Ontario Farmer staff St. Jacobs - The price of milk will come down if the Dairy Farmers of Ontario marketing bozu'd continues to use its current cost-ollprtxluction formula. Board director John Palmer of Norwich said this is one reason why the milk board has the formula under review. He said the trend to larger herds and milking parlours has lowered the labour involved in producing milk. therefore the cost of pro- duction is coming down. He said one of the things the board is considering is a "mar-- ketplace factor" similar to the approach the Canadian Dairy Commission used when it considered its most recent price increase. " It's too bad we didn't consider that earlier. when the economy was going along really strong" and the public would have pre-- sumably been in a better position to accept a price increase. Palmer told an information meeting for dairy famiers in the Waterloo Re- gion here recently. The Canadian Dairy C ommis-- sion prices milk that's used to make dairy products. such as but- ter and cheeses. The provincial boards price fluid milk. Both use cost--of--production fomtulas. There was a 2. l 3 per cent in- crease to fluid milk prices on Feb. 1. and 3.8 per cent for industrial milk. Palmer said that increase should bring the year-long weighted average price for both types of milk to $6] per hectolitre. in a question period later. one ftumer asked when the board will sttut offering the ltugest--volume shippers a reduction on the per- litre cost of trzmsportation. Palmer said he doubts there will ever be a volume discount. but said the board is considering a "stop charge" for every visit a milk truck pays to a dairy farm. He said there already is a mini- mum tlat--rate stop charge for any pickups of less than 600 litres of milk. " so this is not something entirely new." Palmer said the proposal for a new fee would reduce some of the inequities between the largest and smallest--volume producers. but said the board does want to retain the philosophy that all producers, no matter where they are farming and how much they are shipping. pay the same transportation rate. He said it costs up to $5 per hectolitre to pick up milk froin some farms in remote areas of Northern ()ntm'io. A stop charge would cost the laugest--volume shippers more be-- cause many of them have their milk picked up daily. Most have pickup every second day. lfa stop charge comes into effect. some farmers might choose to have their pickups reduced to every third day. Palmer said. .lirn Bearinger spoke against a volume discount and said dairy farmers need to stick together. Supply mzmagement will falter if farmers begin to divide this way. he said. The large--volume producers benefit from having smaller pro-- ducers in the industry because their higher cost of production holds milk prices higher. provid-- ing better profit margins for the huge-volume shippers. Bearinger reasoned. GREAT LEAD. "We need each other." he said. Palmer said the argument could cut two was s because the larger-- volurne shippers might get a break on the cost oftranstmiting milk. but might also have to take a low-- er price for their milk because their cost ofprtxluction is lower. But Palmeremphasi/ed several times that the board is not considering a discount on trans-- portation charges for larger volume shippers. He said so many farms are becoming larger that the milk board has reduced its scrutiny of those who are buying more qur >la. lt w ill be reduced to a check on those who exceed l50 litres per day. and Will be reviewed at I00-- litre increments. 'almer said "it's a waste oftime" to check more closely. He said there we two fanns within his dis-- : eartld be more flexibilty for t wish to ship more or less often tiict that exceed 3( )0 litres per day. Palmer noted that quota prices have come down this spring - S l 8.50l per litre on the April ex-- change -- and said because there has been about four times as much quota on offer as there have been bids. he expects the price will con- tinue to fall. There is widespread speculation that the advent ofexport contract-- ing has reduced the pressure to acquire quota. Export contracting hit l3.700 litres in March and held above l3.000 litres for April compared with l0.500 in February and less than 5.000 when the exchange begin] in August. Export contract volume now exceeds seven percent of Ontario's milk production. BANVEL ll TIlEl III THE LOTS OF PARTNERS. Banvel® H: StiH the cornerstone for weed controlin corn. 4.»- " Banvel ll leads with dependable residual control of tough broadleaf weeds in corn. 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