Court Opinion

ID: 9479451
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:19:11.941301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:03.428055
License: Public Domain

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
As the opinion of the Court points out, ante at p. 334, North Arkansas has made no claim that it is entitled to the dairy termination payments to the extent that they may reflect a differential between the sale price of the dairy cattle and their fair market value. The Court therefore correctly declines to consider the merits of this hypothetical claim. Had North Arkansas asserted such a claim, however, I believe it might well have been meritorious. The Dairy Termination Program encourages the reduction of milk production by giving producers a substantial incentive to abandon the milk business. To qualify for the program, a dairy farmer must sell his herd for slaughter or export. This feature of the program raises the possibility that the actual sale price may be below the price that could have been obtained had the herd been sold for domestic dairy use. Viewed from the perspective of a lender who has a security interest in the herd and in proceeds from the sale of the herd, a sale for slaughter or export thus may result in an impairment of collateral—an impairment of collateral that the program encourages the farmer to bring about. In this way, there may be what amounts to an uncompensated “taking” of a portion of the collateral for a public purpose. Such uncompensated takings could be avoided by treating Dairy Termination Program payments as “proceeds” from the sale of the herd to the extent that the sale for slaughter or export is made at a price below the price the herd would bring if sold for domestic dairy use. The views expressed herein are of course only tentative, since we have not had the benefit of briefing or argument on this issue.