[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 174 (Friday, September 6, 1996)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 47038-47039]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-22786]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Marketing Service
7 CFR Part 1075
[DA-96-12]
Milk in the Black Hills, South Dakota, Marketing Area;
Termination of the Order
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
ACTION: Final rule; termination order.
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SUMMARY: This document terminates all but certain administrative
sections of the order regulating the handling of milk in the Black
Hills, South Dakota, marketing area. Termination of this order was
requested by Black Hills Milk Producers, a cooperative association that
represents all of the producers whose milk is pooled under the order.
Thus, termination of the order is required under the Agricultural
Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, as amended.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 1996.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Clifford M. Carman, Marketing
Specialist, USDA/AMS/Dairy Division, Order Formulation Branch, Room
2971, South Building, P.O. Box 96456, Washington, DC 20090-6456, (202)
720-9368.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department is issuing this rule in
conformance with Executive Order 12866.
This termination order has been reviewed under Executive Order
12988, Civil Justice Reform. This action is not intended to have
retroactive effect. This rule will 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 the date of the entry of the ruling.
This order of termination is issued pursuant to the provisions of
the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act and of the order regulating
the handling of milk in the Black Hills, South Dakota, marketing area.
Small Business Consideration
During June 1996, the representative period determined for this
action, 58 producers (all members of the Black Hills Milk Producers
cooperative association) had their milk pooled under the Black Hills
order. The Small Business Administration (SBA) criterion of $500,000 in
annual receipts, adjusted to reflect the information for one month
($500,000 divided by 12, divided by the 1995 average order blend price
of $13.95 per hundredweight) was used to determine that dairy farmers
marketing less than 300,000 pounds of milk meet the description of a
small dairy farm. On the basis of the pounds of milk marketed during
the representative period, 54 of the 58 dairy farmers would be small
businesses. Of these, 27 marketed less than 100,000 pounds during June,
20 marketed between 100,000 and 200,000 pounds, and 7 marketed between
200,000 and 300,000 pounds.
In addition to the cooperative, there is one other milk handler
regulated under the Black Hills order in South Dakota. Under SBA
criterion, this handler would be considered a small business.
Consequently, nearly all of the parties affected by the Black Hills
milk order would be classified as small entities.
The current reporting, recordkeeping and other compliance
requirements of the rule would cease with termination of the order.
None of the currently-affected entities would be subject to any
additional reporting or recordkeeping requirements for purposes of the
Federal milk order program as a result of the
[[Page 47039]]
order's termination. However, a handler would continue to be required
to maintain records of milk receipts and sales into another Federal
order marketing area and report them to the market administrator of the
other marketing area. In addition, if a handler's sales into another
Federal order marketing area become a large enough percentage of a
handler's milk receipts, a handler would be pooled under another order
and incur the same reporting, recordkeeping and payment obligations it
currently has under the Black Hills order.
Termination of the order will remove government enforcement of
minimum prices to handlers and to producers that are determined by
supply and demand conditions. It will also remove other stabilizing
features of the regulatory program such as: an impartial audit of
handler records to insure payment to dairy farmers and to verify the
reported uses of milk; the assurance to farmers of accurate weighing,
testing, classification and accounting for milk; and the existence of
marketing information to evaluate market performance. Thus, it is
likely that market conditions would tend to become less orderly or
stable. However, it must be assumed that the consequences of the
removal of the regulatory program have been considered by the
cooperative association that has requested the action, and that
possibly other approaches have or will be made to replace the
stabilizing influence of the order.
Regardless of the possible economic effects of the order
termination on the small entities involved, a termination is required
by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, as amended,
whenever a termination is requested by a majority of the producers
engaged in the production of milk for sale in the marketing area in a
representative period determined by the Secretary. Black Hills Milk
Producers, as the cooperative association representing all of the
producers whose milk is pooled under the Black Hills milk order, has
requested that the order be terminated.
Determination
It is hereby determined that termination of the Black Hills, South
Dakota, order, Part 1075, is favored by a majority of the producers
engaged in the production of milk for sale in the marketing area in the
representative period, determined to be June 1996, and that such
producers produced more than 50 percent of the milk produced for sale
in the Black Hills, South Dakota, milk marketing area in such
representative period.
It is also determined that notice of proposed rule making and
public procedure thereon is impracticable, unnecessary and contrary to
the public interest. Section 608(c)(16)(B) of the Agricultural
Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, as amended, requires that if a
majority of the producers engaged in the production of milk for sale in
the marketing area in a representative period determined by the
Secretary favor termination of the order, and such producers produced
more than 50 percent of the milk produced for sale in the marketing
area in the representative period, that such order shall be terminated.
It is therefore necessary that the provisions of the order, as amended,
subject to specific exceptions, be terminated effective October 1,
1996.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 1075
Milk marketing orders.
Order
Pursuant to the provisions of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement
Act of 1937, as amended (7 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) it is hereby ordered
that all provisions of the order, as amended, regulating the handling
of milk in the Black Hills, South Dakota, marketing area (7 CFR Part
1075) except Sec. 1075.1, which incorporates the General Provisions in
Part 1000, are hereby terminated effective October 1, 1996.
Milk marketing orders.
For the reason set forth in the preamble, 7 CFR Part 1075 is
amended as follows:
PART 1075--MILK IN THE BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA, MARKETING AREA
1. The authority citation for 7 CFR Part 1075 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: (Secs. 1-19, 48 Stat. 31, as amended; 7 U.S.C. 601-
674).
Secs. 1075.2 through 1075.85 [Removed]
2. In part 1075 Secs. 1075.2 through 1075.85 and their undesignated
center headings are removed effective October 1, 1996.
Dated: August 30, 1996.
Michael V. Dunn,
Assistant Secretary, Marketing and Regulatory Programs.
[FR Doc. 96-22786 Filed 9-5-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P
