Overall, the hearing is proceeding at a slow pace. Each day begins at 9 a.m. and concludes no later than 5 p.m., with short breaks throughout the day and a longer break for lunch. At the start of every day, Judge Clifton reads a prepared statement about the purpose of this hearing and the role of the Administrative Law Judge.

Next, all those in attendance who either plan to testify or cross examine another witness are asked to introduce themselves. Finally, a U.S. Department of Agriculture staff member discusses the department’s role in the hearing, how anyone may ask to testify and the process for entering exhibits into the hearing record.

Friday, September 25, Day 4, saw the conclusion of cross examination of USDA’s initial staff witnesses, although due to several data requests from hearing participants, at least one USDA staff member will take the stand again later in the hearing.

This was followed by arguments for and against allowing the Dairy Institute of California to modify its original proposal (proposal 2) to use a different method to value whey in its proposed Class III price formula. Judge Clifton ruled that the Dairy Institute would be permitted to present arguments in favor of that modification even though USDA had decided not to include it in the notice of hearing.

After lunch, attorneys representing proposals 1 and 2 made opening statements as requested by Judge Clifton. Finally, the first witness for proponents of proposal 1, Elvin Hollon, director of fluid marketing and economic analysis for Dairy Farmers of America, took the stand to read his prepared testimony.

Monday, September 28, Day 5, began with the attorney representing proposals 3 and 4 making her opening statements. During the remainder of the morning, Hollon retook the witness stand to describe a number of data tables he prepared as a hearing exhibit, followed by cross examination by other hearing participants.

After lunch, Judge Clifton suspended the continued cross examination of Hollon to permit three dairy producers to testify: Cornell Kasbergen, Jared Fernandes and Xavier Avila, all in support of proposal 1. Then Hollon from DFA retook the stand, and his cross examination continued until the end of the day. He will take the stand again later as other hearing participants have additional cross examination questions for him.

Tuesday, September 29, Day 6 of the hearing focused entirely on the testimony and cross examination of dairy producers and their representatives, all of whom supported proposal 1. This began with Annie AcMoody, a staff dairy economist with Western United Dairyman, followed by three dairy producers: George Mertens, Sietse Tollenaar and Peter Olson.

Later in the day, Lynne McBride, executive director of the California Dairy Campaign, took the witness stand, followed by dairy producers Scott Magneson and Joaquin Contente.