DPNM President's Message

President's Letter
Jim Hoffman
August, 2005

I would like to thank the Board and all the others who offered their support for our first Annual Student Scholarship Program to honor the memory of longtime board member and good friend Arie Breedyk, Sr. Arie meant a lot to us as a board member, friend and family man. The scholarships were presented at the Chaves County Junior Livestock Sale where Arie offered his support for many years.

As usual there is a lot going on. I would like to applaud the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) committee for the announcement to have another buy-out. This program has been very good for the dairy industry, and I personally hope that we keep that option open.

To me it doesn’t seem that long since the last Farm Bill was implemented, but we are already working on the next one. The Secretary of Agriculture is holding listening sessions throughout the country to start the process. By the time you read this, Sharon will have been to Las Cruces to represent us at the listening session there. This will be an ongoing process, so if you have any questions or comments, please contact Sharon.

The more we hear from our members, the better equipped we will be to deal with issues related to the upcoming Farm Bill. The more united we are as an industry; the better the Farm Bill will be for us. We will be working with other industry groups around the country to hopefully establish common ground to be used in negotiations with the Department of Agriculture and Congress as the new Farm Bill is being written.

As always thank you for your support of DPNM.