April Foolishness

On April 1, federal-support prices on dairy products dropped from 90% of parity to 75%. In the end-of-March rush to take advantage of the higher supports, farmers and food processors unloaded record tonnages of butter, cheese and dried milk on the Agriculture Department. Last week the Department finished adding up the huge purchases for the month: 87 million lbs. of butter, 132 million lbs. of dried milk, 189 million lbs. of cheese. Cost: $156 million.

Some of the sellers turned right around after April 1 and bought the same commodities back from the Government at lower prices. Cheese companies bought back 92 million lbs. of cheddar at 3-c- a lb. less than the 37-c- and 38-c- a lb. they had sold it for. The cheese was sold and repurchased without ever stirring from cold-storage warehouses.

Buy-back deals were arranged ahead of time, explained Agriculture Secretary Benson, in the hope that cheese processors would wait until April 1 before cutting milk prices paid to farmers. But cheese-men began trimming milk prices well ahead of time, so Benson's kindheartedness did the farmers little good.

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