National Milk Producers Federation

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Milk Producers Federation today asked the Senate to provide funding for the Milk Income Loss Contract program for the month of September – a 30-day extension with larger implications for the upcoming five-year Farm Bill. The Senate is currently debating a measure that contains supplemental spending for the war in Iraq, along with the one-month MILC extension.

In a letter sent today to the entire Senate, NMPF pointed out that unless the Senate appropriates approximately $30 million for the one-month extension, the MILC program will expire prior to the end of Fiscal Year 2007, which ends Sept. 30th of this year. If the MILC program ends Aug. 31st, 2007 – which is when it is now set to conclude – there would not be a baseline of funding available in the next Farm Bill to renew the MILC, or a similar direct payment program that NMPF is supporting for the new Farm Bill.

“Unless this one month extension is included in the current supplemental, America's dairy producers face the troubling prospect of being left without this very critical piece of our overall safety net, not just for one month, but in the next Farm Bill as well,” wrote Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF.

NMPF recently unveiled a comprehensive proposal for the new Farm Bill that contains a Producer Security Program that would provide direct payments to dairy farmers. The availability of consistent, regular funding for such a program depends largely on getting a baseline for the MILC in the next Farm Bill.

In the letter to the Senate, NMPF pointed out that the extension of the MILC “is even more important now in a time when record high feed costs are putting a huge burden on dairy producers. High corn and other feed prices, along with high energy costs, are a serious impediment to the future of milk production in the United States. It is critical that we maintain the economic health of dairy producers across the nation,” the letter wrote.

By not including the MILC provisions currently contained in the Senate version of the supplemental appropriations bill, “adequate funding for MILC, or any successor program, could be unfairly jeopardized in the 2007 Farm Bill. The result would be a serious setback for all of the nation's milk producers, who have worked so hard to come together in support of a national farm policy,” Kozak wrote to the Senate.