Got milk?

Government officials and farmers huddled Wednesday to consider how best to deal with plummeting milk prices.

The round table teleconference discussion included remarks from U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Philadelphia, and state Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff regarding long- and short-term solutions to the problem.

"Things have gotten dire," Wolff said. "We need to reform federal dairy policy. We need to look at every area."

Wolff noted his encounter this week with two farmers who tearfully described how they were forced to give up family dairy operations because they could not afford to run them.

"In my six and a half years (as secretary), I've never seen that kind of emotion," he said. "So we need something immediate."

The dairy industry is seeing prices as low as $10 and $11 for a hundredweight of milk, down from $24 a year ago, according to some reports.

Overall, milk prices have been below cost of production since January.

"The situation is enormously serious," said Specter, who made a brief appearance at the conference.

Specter and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, have introduced legislation targeted at helping farmers get a fair price for their milk.

The Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009 requires that all milk produced in the United States be considered using a national average cost of production as a means of helping mitigate extreme price volatility.

Bob Gray of the Northeast Dairy Cooperatives said he's never seen prices as bad for dairy farmers as they are now.

He said farmers and officials representing different parts of the nation must work together for a solution.

"One region of the country can't do this," he said.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, told conference attendees that he has come across many dairy farmers who simply are drowning in red ink.

"I get letters all the time," he said. "People are hurting back home."

Thompson, whose Congressional district takes in 17 counties of northcentral and northwestern Pennsylvania, including Lycoming, called the situation a crisis that demands long-term solutions.

To address it short term, he has signed onto legislation offering government subsidies for farmers.

"I signed on to increase the MILC," he said. "I am not sure that is the right answer, but we are looking for something."

MILC, or Milk Income Loss Contract, is a USDA Farm Service Agency program that supports the dairy industry by providing monthly payments to milk producers when prices for milk fall to certain levels..

"I'm not a real subsidy fan, but we are in a crisis situation. We have to do something."

Specter said he will confer with Casey on the dairy situation.

"We will stay on top of this and try to get something done," he said.

State Rep. Dave Kessler, D-Berks, said the loss of vast amounts of farmland in the state is the real problem.

"If we don't do something quickly, we will continue to lose farmland. If we lose too much prime farmland, we might as well forget about talking about anything else."

Attempts to reach U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Dimock, were not successful.