What's New?

LATEST NEWS

NMPF Lauds House Agriculture Committee Vote to Support Dairy Security Act in Farm Bill

From Jerry Kozak, President and CEO, NMPF:

“The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is pleased with today’s vote in the House Agriculture Committee in support of the Dairy Security Act (DSA). The committee’s decision to once again reject an amendment by Reps. Bob Goodlatte and David Scott that would have undermined the House Farm Bill’s dairy safety net is gratifying to the thousands of dairy farmers across the country who support the DSA.

“We very much appreciate the efforts of committee Chairman Frank Lucas and ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson for their leadership in including the Dairy Security Act in the Farm Bill. The DSA provides the best combination of effective risk management for dairy farmers, while minimizing farm program costs to the taxpayer.

“Dairy farmers have labored for four years to develop the reforms contained in the DSA. We have worked with leaders of both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to construct a new safety net that offers dairy farmers more effective protection than current policy. We appreciate the fact that House Agriculture Committee members are concerned with fashioning the best dairy policy possible, and we are heartened by their decision today to back the DSA.

READ MORE>>
New Economic Assessment of Farm Bill Dairy Security Act Says It’s Better for Farmers and Taxpayers

ARLINGTON, VA – A new analysis of the key Farm Bill dairy proposals under consideration in the House Agriculture Committee finds that the Dairy Security Act (DSA) is better for farmers – as well as taxpayers – compared to the Goodlatte-Scott alternative proposal that will be offered in the committee deliberations tomorrow.

The new report, prepared by University of Missouri agricultural economists Scott Brown and Daniel Madison, assessed how the Dairy Security Act would have affected farm-level economics during the period 2009 through 2012 compared with the impact of an alternative plan offered by Reps. Goodlatte and Scott (G-S). The DSA program offers dairy farmers margin insurance, coupled with a market stabilization mechanism that improves farm prices during low periods while also controlling the program’s cost. The Goodlatte-Scott amendment lacks the market stabilization feature.

READ MORE>>

CEO’S CORNER


Jerry Kozak
NMPF President
& CEO
The First Casualty

May is going to be a pivotal month in the crusade to create a better future for dairy farmers, as both the Senate and House Agriculture Committees will, in the next two weeks, begin marking up the five-year farm bill that stalled out at the end of 2012. Dairy farmers have a huge stake in how the farm bill gets resolved.

READ MORE>>

Farmers Benefit from Dairy Security Act

Why is the Dairy Security Act (DSA) important to the future of dairy farmers and the health of the dairy producer sector? This document simply and clearly illustrates how a typical farmer with 200 cows would have benefitted by having the DSA in place in 2012. The charts it contains examine how an average size farm, with average production, and purchasing a modest amount of supplemental margin insurance, would have benefitted last year – at a time when milk prices dropped, feed costs increased, and margins were very tight. This assessment has one clear conclusion: the DSA would have increased income by about $1 per hundredweight on all milk produced in 2012 for farmers enrolled in the DSA who purchased supplemental coverage at the $6.50 level, even after subtracting out all costs related to the program.

 

The Farm Bill is now coming up for a vote again in Congress. Please reaffirm your support for the Dairy Security Act, and urge your members of Congress to pass the legislation as a complete package.

Connect with Twitter

CONNECT WITH US: