USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is asking dairy stakeholders whether a 150,000-pound monthly route-sales limit used to qualify plants for a federal milk marketing order exemption still fits today’s fluid milk market. Comments are due November 23, 2026. The request opens a review of market conditions, not a change to the exemption.
The Federal Register notice is dated October 23 and was filed October 22. AMS wants input from both handlers operating exempt plants and regulated handlers that do not qualify, including information on how the limit affects their businesses.
A threshold rooted in the 1999 reforms
The threshold dates to the 1999 Federal Milk Marketing Order Reform. According to AMS, the agency reviewed existing order provisions and chose the highest size-based exemption then available: 150,000 pounds or less of monthly route disposition. Its aim was to avoid imposing a pool obligation on plants already exempt because of their size.
AMS now asks whether changes in dairy markets make that limit less appropriate. The agency seeks plant data, information on current fluid milk marketing conditions and descriptions of potential cost increases or decreases for producers, handlers and consumers if the threshold changes.
Small-business effects are another focus. The notice says the Small Business Administration currently defines a small fluid milk processing business as a plant, or a company operating multiple plants, with 1,150 or fewer employees collectively. That employee-based definition is separate from the monthly route-disposition threshold under review.
How to submit comments
Stakeholders may respond to one or more of AMS’s questions through Regulations.gov or by mail to USDA AMS Dairy Programs. Comments should reference document AMS-DA-26-0298, the October 23, 2026 Federal Register date and page 66829. AMS says submissions, including commenters’ identities, will become public. The request sets no new effective date or replacement threshold.
