Idaho dairymen will decide Thursday if they will break away from a collective effort by major dairy producing states to seek milk price supports.

If approved, it would move Idaho - the third largest dairy producing state in the nation - away from California and Wisconsin, which are lobbying congress for more government action to increase milk prices.

"We have a different philosophy,"said Bob Naerebout, director of the Idaho Dairymen's Association. "We are following the recommendations of the National Milk Producers Federation."

According to the federation's website, the organization seeks to increase sales by more aggressively marketing dairy products.

However, with dairy prices off nearly 40 percent from last year's peak, farmers, industry advocates and milk processors from other dairy producing states filled a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing room last week to discuss lasting solutions to their crisis.

Consumer demand, particularly for cheese, slipped amid the worldwide economic downturn. But production continued to grow. In September, the price dairy farmers received for 100 pounds of milk was $11.90, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, down from a high of $19.50 in June 2008.

The surplus is not easy to eliminate, because dairy cows must be milked - or sent to slaughter. With the average price of producing milk around $18 per 100 pounds, depending on the state, farmers lose money every day.

The hearing was led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa.

"There are not many businesses where people do backbreaking labor seven days a week and come out financially worse for their trouble," Gillibrand said.

Much of the talk about solutions centered on exporting dairy products to developing countries.

"If (the Chinese) drink milk, we'll find a way to get it there," said Eric Ooms, a New York dairy farmer with 400 cows.

The Obama administration recently signed into law $350 million in emergency aid for the industry. Most of that, $290 million, will go directly to support dairy farmers. The remaining $60 million is set aside to buy cheese to reduce supply and boost prices.

Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo both voted against the emergency aid at the request of the Idaho Dairymen's Association.

The USDA already had allocated nearly $1 billion for dairy product purchases and subsidies for the 2009 fiscal year.

Farmers say the milk pricing system needs to be overhauled, something the senators agreed would be looked into when the next farm bill, scheduled for 2012, comes up.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.