California's dairymen dumping milk in midst of power crisis

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California's dairymen dumping milk in midst of power crisis By KILEY RUSSELL Associated Press Writer

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- California's dairy farmers have been dumping fresh milk into wastewater ponds since mid-December because several industrial creameries in the Central Valley are being hit with power outages.

As nearly 2 million people in Northern and Central California muddled through their second day of rotating blackouts Thursday, farmers in the San Joaquin Valley were told once again that there was no place to put the milk their cows produced that morning.

"The processing plants can't handle the milk because the power has been curtailed, so the milk backs up on the farms," said Land O'Lakes vice president Jack Prince.

Since the state's power crisis began in December, farmers supplying the Land O'Lakes processing plant in Tulare have been forced to dump roughly 450,000 pounds of milk, Prince said.

The Tulare plant is the nation's largest, processing up to 12 million pounds of milk every day.

"We've had 15 power curtailments since mid-December," Prince said.

The three largest plants in the San Joaquin Valley, including the Kraft Foods, Inc. plants in Visalia and Tulare, have been shut down for several hours every day since Monday.

Officials from Fresno-based California Dairies, Inc., which is the second-largest dairy cooperative in the nation, said Thursday they were able to avoid dumping milk -- at least for the rest of the day.

"As of this afternoon, we still have things under control. We're able to handle all the milk," California Dairies chief executive Richard Cotta said.

The company processes and sells about 38 million pounds of raw milk from 700 farms everyday.

"We sell to maybe 25 other processors or so. If one of those are down for an hour, we can handle it, but if they all start to go down all at once, it'll be a disaster," Cotta said.

Land O'Lakes dairymen, however, weren't so fortunate. A handful were forced to partially empty storage tanks into their fields as tanker trucks full of milk sat at idle processing plants around the valley.

The outages at the plants weren't caused by rotating blackouts, however. Large manufacturers like Kraft and Land O'Lakes for years have been operating with contracts with Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, Co. that grant them discounts on power bills in exchange for voluntary brownouts during periods of peak demand.

But the brownouts are getting worse, Cotta said.

"They're not living up to their end of contract at all. Our plant was curtailed for 16 and a half continuous hours yesterday. It's supposed to be limited to just six," Cotta said.

While nobody is quite sure what the ultimate cost of the state's power crunch will be, manufacturers will likely soon begin tacking on the additional costs to their products.

"Sooner or later it'll have a huge impact on consumers," Cotta said.

Last week, the Western United Dairymen, a trade association representing about 1,100 California farmers, asked the California Department of Food and Agriculture to increase the amount of money paid to farmers for milk for liquid, cheese, butter and powder to account for the industry's rising energy costs.

If farmers are allowed to pass that cost along, it will mean an increase of less than a penny a gallon at the super market, said Michael Marsh, chief executive of the Western United Dairymen.

Because milk payments to dairies are heavily regulated, farmers can't increase prices without government approval. A decision from the CDFA is expected within the next few weeks.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/calreport/calrep_story.cgi?story=N2001-01-18-1730-1.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 19, 2001

Answers

Absolutely unnecessary - They could rent a big diesel generator to satisfy there needs. I was riding my bicycle in Tempe and rode by Circus Flora which is a big circus in a tent making the rounds. They rented a big diesel generator that is brought out and delivered by forklift. The diesel tank which was immense is also on a metal pallet that can be unloaded by forklift. The diesel generator was whisper quiet. I was so impressed I wrote down the information because I was interested in buying stock if it was listed on an exchange - Nope, privately owned out of Canada. I'm sure a dairy farm can run on a diesel generator and they'd be better off what with the energy problems they'll be having for who knows how long.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@altavista.com), January 19, 2001.

Absolutely unnecessary?! Oh ye of little memory...or perhaps you DIDN'T try to buy a generator during the last half of 1999. And we consumers get to pay even higher prices for our dairy products--VERY LITTLE of which the farmer gets. (I know--family & friends are on both sides of this issue.) Farmers make so little that their only choice is to "pass the cost along"--provided they can FIND a generator!

Oh, it's easy to see how power blackouts force shift layoffs at manufacturing plants--if they don't produce; they can't afford to keep workers. What you city dudes don't realize is the SAME thing happens to YOUR food supply! If the farmer can't find a generator to purchase or the gas to run it--then that farmer has to get rid of milk producing cows. Then there's a shortage of milk. Tell THAT to your hungry kids!

-- Boondocks (maboulden@gilanet.com), January 19, 2001.


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