Farmers are not the only ones concerned about federal milk marketing orders and how milk and cheese prices work in the marketplace. Ken Heiman is a master cheesemaker and dairy farmer in central Wisconsin. “As proprietaries, we’re required under federal law to pay this price, and then we get to some of the cooperatives and they’re not required to pay it, and people outside that don’t belong to any of the federal orders are not required to pay it.”
Heiman tells Brownfield farmers and processors are benefiting from strong specialty cheese sales, but there are factors hurting prices farmers and processors get.
