At IPDP's Aug. 17 board meeting, ISDA spokesperson John Nagel shared the potential for a CSX train on a dedicated line to travel from the old Kingsbury Munitions depot in LaPorte County to the Port of Manatee near Tampa Florida. This would hold container freight that when leaving Kingsbury would be certified to move into world export.

I am not aware that there are now any exportable dairy products being produced in the LaPorte County area. However, DFA has a powder plant in Goshen, and MMPA has a brand new plant in Michigan. Continental Coop is reportedly building a new plant in Michigan, Foremost Farms has cheese and whey powder plant just into Wisconsin, and there is a Canadian-owned cheese processor in Shipshewanna.

The flip side of this coin is that the train will also bring containers up from Manatee to Kingsbury that won't likely be empty. They will bring marketable products from the Manatee Port into the Chicago land area which is the second largest marketing area in the US.

While the only products John mentioned were produce from the Florida markets, one must believe that that containers won't just be coming from Florida but also potentially from the Caribbean area, including South America and Mexico.

Fonterra, the New Zealand Cooperative, is developing dairies in Brazil along with a joint venture with Nestle. They are a few years off from having a world impact, but the potential is there.

IPDP requested that Deb Osza contact Tom Suber of US Dairy Export Council to see what the potential markets were in the Caribbean area. Dairy producers need to develop a commission that works intensely with ISDA, CSX and USDEC to find products that have market appeal in that region. Once identified we need to work together to establish a marketing plan to get those products to the Kingsbury site and consider investing in processing for products that might not be available in our area.

IPDP Participating in Immigrant Labor
Meetings 9/19, 9/26

Immigration news is once again a big issue as the Obama Administration announces changes in their enforcement policies. How do these issues affect Indiana dairy farms that employ full time immigrant labor? Many livestock producers have expressed concerns about how to determine if someone's documentation is accurate or how to protect their farm in the event someone questions their workers' status.

Just last fall, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents audited a livestock farm in Indiana and determined that a significant number of employees were illegal and would have to be fired if they could not prove legal status.  If you were contacted by an ICE agent, would you know how to respond?  Would the paperwork on your employees be in order?  Would your I-9 forms be completed correctly? Should you use e-verify?  What would you do if you received a no-match letter from the federal government about one of your employees?  If this concerns you, come to one of our four regional meetings located at Greensburg, Huntingburg, Lafayette, or Wabash on 9/19 or 9/26.  To find out what location and date please call Doug Leman at 317-695-8228 to sign up and get the information.

Senator Richard Lugar and Congressman Marlin Stutzman are the only Indiana legislators that serve on the Ag Committee in their respective houses. They gathered in Fort Wayne on August 25th to provide a listening session to area farmers on the 2012 Farm Bill. They agreed on most of the questions that were asked via moderator Beth Bechdol, Ice Miller.

In his opening statement, Senator Lugar mentioned that he was strongly opposed to any plan to control supply to increase the value of farm products. Both favor the elimination of direct farm payments but Senator Lugar cited the challenges that cotton, rice and sugar farmers have with that policy. Rep. Stutzman believes that it is important to take a step back and re-evaluate how we treat different crops and focus on free markets. He is opposed to direct payments and prefers a phase out period to eliminate direct and counter cyclical farm payments. He would like to see farmers given flexibility to raise the crops that an individual farmer determines are best for their particular operation. Both Lugar and Stuzman support strong crop and livestock insurance programs as a farm safety net instead of guaranteed government payments.

When asked about dairy policy, both Senator Lugar and Rep. Stutzman admitted they weren't fully knowledgeable about it but as a principle, they believe in supply and demand driven farm economics.

This presents a significant opportunity for Indiana dairy farmers to contact legislators who will have an impact on dairy policy in the 2012 Farm Bill. If you have opinions about this subject, please contact Senator Lugar's Farm Bill Contact, Megan Provost, at 202-224-4814 and Rep. Stutzman's Chief of Staff, John Hammond, at 202-225-4436.