Bipartisan groups of 38 senators and 77 representatives led respectively by U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and U.S. Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to hasten implementation of 2018 Farm Bill provisions that they say will alleviate market instability for America’s dairy farmers.
Sen. Blunt and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) were the leads on a March 28 letter sent to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, while Rep. Thompson and U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) led members in signing a March 27 letter to the secretary asking him to quickly implement the dairy provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill.
The lawmakers wrote in their letters that the 2018 Farm Bill expands support for small and medium-sized dairy farms by providing affordable coverage options through the Dairy Margin Coverage program, which they said offers significant benefits for all operations and up to five times as much support for the smallest farms.
“The situation for dairy farmers is urgent,” the senators wrote. “Although Dairy Margin Coverage is effective as of January 1, 2019, the government shutdown delayed action on 2018 Farm Bill implementation for over a month. During this time, dairy farmers have continued to face market instability and are struggling to survive the fourth year of sustained low prices.”
Rep. Thompson and his colleagues agreed and wrote that during the last decade, the United States has lost more than one-third of licensed dairy farms and over 2,700 farms ceased operations in 2018.
“Many of the dairy farmers still operating today are those who have weathered steep market declines in 2009 and 2012 and have been without well-functioning risk management tools for several years given the deficiencies of the now-ended Margin Protection Program (MPP),” the House members wrote.
The lawmakers also pointed to USDA data that shows the annual farm net cash income for dairies declined almost 60 percent between 2014 and the most recent 2018 projections.
“Provisions of the new farm bill, particularly the new Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program, will provide much-needed help if they can ready dairy farmers quickly enough,” wrote the representatives, noting that changes to the DMC program make it a more flexible policy “that will likely benefit many of the farmers who chose not to participate” in the MPP.
In the meantime, the lawmakers wrote that USDA should “invest in outreach, training, coordination with partner organizations, and staffing to ensure that every eligible farmer receives personalized information about the new and improved options.”
Additionally, the members reminded the secretary that the 2018 Farm Bill also includes important changes that will help support the nation’s dairy producers, including: a study on the feed components of the margin calculation, a provision to counteract the disincentive for milk donation, continuation of forward contracting, an update to the Class I pricing formula, and a partial refund or credits from premiums paid under the former MPP, according to their letters.
The senators and representatives concluded that they also look forward to working with the secretary to address other issues of importance to dairy farmers, such as “expanding domestic and foreign market access, addressing labor needs, and fully implementing all dairy provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill.”