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P.M. BRIEFING : Milk Price Hearings Planned

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From Times Wire Services

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Clayton K. Yeutter said today that the department will hold hearings on national milk price changes but denied that the decision was in response to a lawsuit by four states and two milk cooperatives.

“Some will say it is in response to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota and some milk producers,” Yeutter told the annual convention of the American Milk Producers Inc. “I will say that is not the case. . . .”

“We do not make policy on the basis of intimidation,” he said. “We do not respond to lawsuits.”

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In January, the Minnesota Milk Producers Assn., an 8,500-member cooperative based in Moorhead, filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of state dairy farmers and asked the federal court to force the secretary to hold hearings on the price differentials for various dairy products. Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota said they will file friend-of-the-court briefs.

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