The Response of Milk Production to Price

ECENT efforts of dairymen to obtain so-called self-help legislation permitting marketing controls illustrates farmers' increasing concern with the persistent increase in milk output and a recognition that higher price goals probably cannot be achieved without some control on supply. At the recent hearings of the Joint Economic Committee on Policy for Commercial Agriculture, the questions having to do with farmers' supply response to price were among those major ones left unanswered. The whole fabric of our past and present price support program cannot be adequately judged without clear-cut answers to many questions about the response of productioin to price. The points above illustrate and emphasize the need for well-founded conclusions in this area.