MPP Forecast – August
August 3, 2016
USDA announced in early August that the MPP margin for the May-June period fell to $5.76 per hundredweight, the lowest margin level since the program began in 2014. Early August futures for feed and milk prices indicate that MPP margins should rebound sharply from that level, with USDA’s futures-based forecast projecting the bimonthly MPP margin to be approximately $7.50 per hundredweight for the July-August period, but rising to around $10 per hundredweight later in the year. The Department assigned a probability of only 15 percent or less that the bimonthly MPP margin will fall below the $8 coverage level during any period for the remainder of 2016 and through 2017. USDA’s MPP margin forecasts are updated daily at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/pages/content/farmBill/fb_MPPDTool.jsp.
Dairy farmers currently have from now until Sept. 30 to enroll in the Margin Protection Program for coverage in 2017, or to change their coverage level if they are already participating in MPP. NMPF’s Future for Dairy website offers a variety of educational resources to help farmers select the desired coverage level: https://www.nmpf.org/margin-protection-program-2014-farm-bill.