[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 42 (Thursday, March 3, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-4820]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: March 3, 1994]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
7 CFR Part 1094

[DA-94-06]

 

Milk in the New Orleans-Mississippi Marketing Area; Suspension of 
Certain Provisions of the Order

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.

ACTION: Suspension of rule.

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SUMMARY: This document suspends, for 23 months, the 45 percent delivery 
requirement for a plant operated by a cooperative association that is 
located within the New Orleans-Mississippi marketing area. The 
suspension was requested by Gulf Dairy Association, Inc., which 
operates a manufacturing plant at Kentwood, Louisiana. The association 
states that without the suspension it will be forced to make 
inefficient qualifying shipments of milk merely to keep the milk of its 
producers qualified for pooling under the order.

EFFECTIVE DATE: March 3, 1994 through December 31, 1995.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nicholas Memoli, Marketing Specialist, 
USDA/AMS/Dairy Division, Order Formulation Branch, room 2971, South 
Building, P.O. Box 96456, Washington, DC 20090-6456, (202) 690-1932.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Prior document in this proceeding: 
    Notice of Proposed Suspension: Issued January 3, 1994; published 
January 10, 1994 (59 FR 1307). 
    The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601-612) requires the 
Agency to examine the impact of a proposed rule on small entities. 
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 605(b), the Administrator of the Agricultural 
Marketing Service has certified that this action will not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
This rule lessens the regulatory impact of the order on certain milk 
handlers and tends to ensure that dairy farmers will continue to have 
their milk priced under the order and thereby receive the benefits that 
accrue from such pricing.
    The Department is issuing this rule in conformance with Executive 
Order 12866.
    This final rule also has been reviewed under Executive Order 12778, 
Civil Justice Reform. This action is not intended to have a retroactive 
effect. This action does not preempt any state or local laws, 
regulations, or policies, unless they present an irreconcilable 
conflict with this rule.
    The Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, as amended (7 
U.S.C. 601-674), provides that administrative proceedings must be 
exhausted before parties may file suit in court. Under section 
608c(15)(A) of the Act, any handler subject to an order may file with 
the Secretary a petition stating that the order, any provision of the 
order, or any obligation imposed in connection with the order is not in 
accordance with the law and requesting a modification of an order or to 
be exempted from the order. A handler is afforded the opportunity for a 
hearing on the petition. After a hearing, the Secretary would rule on 
the petition. The Act provides that the district court of the United 
States in any district in which the handler is an inhabitant, or has 
its principal place of business, has jurisdiction in equity to review 
the Secretary's ruling on the petition, provided a bill in equity is 
filed not later than 20 days after date of the entry of the ruling.
    This order of suspension is issued pursuant to the provisions of 
the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act and of the order regulating 
the handling of milk in the New Orleans-Mississippi marketing area.
    Notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the Federal Register 
on January 10, 1994 (59 FR 1307), concerning a proposed suspension of 
certain provisions of the order. Interested persons were afforded 
opportunity to file written data, views, and arguments thereon. No 
comments were received.
    After consideration of all relevant material, including the 
proposal in the notice, and other available information, it is hereby 
found and determined that for the period commencing with publication of 
this document in the Federal Register and extending through December 
31, 1995, the following provisions of the order do not tend to 
effectuate the declared policy of the Act:
    In Sec. 1094.7(c), the words ``45 percent or more of the''.

Statement of Consideration

    The order will suspend through December 1995 the 45 percent 
delivery requirement for a cooperative association plant that is 
located in the New Orleans-Mississippi marketing area.
    Gulf Dairy Association, Inc., which operates a manufacturing plant 
at Kentwood, Louisiana, that is regulated under Order 94, submitted the 
suspension request. The cooperative stated that because of the present 
45 percent delivery requirement applicable to a cooperative association 
that wishes to qualify a manufacturing plant for pooling, it has had to 
shift some of its producers to neighboring Greater Louisiana (Order 96) 
pool plants to keep its Kentwood plant qualified as a pool plant under 
Order 94. It indicated that Order 96 requires that six days' production 
of a producer must be received at pool plants each month in order to 
qualify the milk for pooling by diversion to a nonpool plant. 
Accordingly, it has had to move the milk of selected producers to Order 
96 pool plants six days per month. Since this milk is not actually 
needed by these pool plants, the cooperative has then had to back-haul 
the milk to its Kentwood manufacturing plant for processing. The 
problem is now particularly acute, according to the cooperative, 
because two Order 94 pool plants have notified Gulf Dairy Association 
that they will no longer purchase milk from them after February 1, 
1994.
    Gulf Dairy Association noted that the problem it is experiencing 
could be resolved through the proposed merger of milk orders that is 
now under consideration by the Department. It urged that the proposed 
suspension be effective pending the completion of that proceeding.
    The suspension is found to be necessary for the purpose of assuring 
that producers' milk will not have to be moved in an uneconomic and 
inefficient manner to assure that producers whose milk has long been 
associated with the New Orleans-Mississippi marketing area will 
continue to benefit from pooling and pricing under the order.
    It is hereby found and determined that thirty days' notice of the 
effective date hereof is impractical, unnecessary and contrary to the 
public interest in that:
    (a) The suspension is necessary to reflect current marketing 
conditions and to assure orderly marketing conditions in the marketing 
area, in that such rule is necessary to permit the continued pooling of 
the milk of dairy farmers who have historically supplied the market 
without the need for making costly and inefficient movements of milk;
    (b) This suspension does not require of persons affected 
substantial or extensive preparation prior to the effective date; and
    (c) Notice of proposed rulemaking was given interested parties and 
they were afforded opportunity to file written data, views or arguments 
concerning this suspension. No comments were received.
    Therefore, good cause exists for making this order effective less 
than 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 1094

    Milk marketing orders.
    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, effective March 3, 1994, 
through December 31, 1995, Title 7, Part 1094, is amended as follows:

PART 1094--MILK IN THE NEW ORLEANS-MISSISSIPPI MARKETING AREA

    1. The authority citation for 7 CFR part 1094 continues to read as 
follows:


    Authority: Secs. 1-19, 48 Stat. 31, as amended; 7 U.S.C. 601-
674.


Sec. 1094.7  [Temporarily suspended in part]

    2. In Sec. 1094.7(c), the words ``45 percent or more of the'' are 
suspended.


    Dated: February 24, 1994.
Patricia Jensen,
Acting Assistant Secretary, Marketing and Inspection Services.
[FR Doc. 94-4820 Filed 3-2-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P