NMPF’s Senior Vice President Chris Galen explains for listeners of Dairy Radio Now how the House and Senate agriculture committees are each now seeking to advance their respective versions of the 2024 Farm Bill. Galen describes how the measures may affect dairy policy, and what the next steps are for lawmakers this spring on Capitol Hill.
From NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern:
“NMPF thanks Secretary Vilsack and USDA’s Farm Service Agency for extending the deadline for Dairy Margin Coverage Program signup to Jan. 31. With input costs at record highs and early projections showing possible DMC payments for the first eight months of 2023, it’s imperative that producers have time to consider their coverage needs and make choices that best fit their operations and risk-management plans.
“Farmers also should use this extended DMC signup period to consider USDA’s full suite of risk-management options, all supported by NMPF. While DMC is designed to promote stable revenues and protect against financial catastrophe for small and medium-sized producers, other options including the Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) program and the Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy Producers (LGM-Dairy) program, both of which were revamped in the 2018 Farm Bill at NMPF’s urging, provide important and effective risk management.
“NMPF also thanks USDA for giving farmers who did not sign up for supplemental DMC coverage in 2022 based on updated production levels another opportunity to do so this year. Finally, producers should keep in mind that USDA is developing a separate milk loss program that was provided for in legislation enacted last year. The program reimburses dairy producers of all sizes for milk dumped on account of disasters that occurred in 2020 and 2021. NMPF is working with USDA as it develops the initiative.”
The January margin under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program rose just over $2/cwt to $11.54/cwt, fueled by the third-highest ever jump in the U.S. average all-milk price.
A spectacular $2.40 per hundredweight one-month jump in the U.S. average all-milk price in January overpowered a DMC feed-cost calculation that rose only 39 cents in the same period. The monthly milk price gain has only been surpassed in April 2004, when it rose by $2.60/cwt, and June 2020, when it leaped by $4.50 /cwt as part of a price sharp recovery from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That jump returned the price to barely higher than it had been just three months earlier; by contrast, the recent spike capped a series of gains that have pushed the price up by $6.50/cwt over five months.
January’s all-milk price has only been surpassed in five months, all in 2014. Late February dairy and grain futures indicate that feed costs will tend to track milk prices over the next several months to keep the margin from rising much above its January level.
As of February 28, the 2021 DMC program has seen record payments of nearly $1.2 billion to 18,952 enrolled operations, an average of $62,773 per enrolled operation. NMPF urges all dairy farmers who haven’t yet joined DMC to do so. The deadline to sign up for the 2022 DMC program has been extended to March 25. NMPF has a page of resources here for those who may have questions about the program.
NMPF is urging farmers to sign up for maximum coverage in 2022 under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program.
This year’s signup, with a deadline of Feb. 18, is accompanied by new enhancements that make the program more valuable than ever for producers seeking protection against unforeseen market risks. NMPF-backed improvements include an enhanced feed cost formula to better reflect the cost of high-quality alfalfa hay, and Supplemental DMC enrollment for many producers whose milk production has increased since 2014.
More than $1.2 billion – a record – in DMC payments are expected to be distributed to dairy producers under the 2021 program, according to USDA data as of Jan. 3.
“Signing up for DMC, which offers cost-effective margin protection for small and medium-sized producers as well as inexpensive catastrophic coverage for larger dairies, is a no-brainer for 2022, especially considering the improvements we fought for in Congress and advocated for at USDA,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF, in a statement when the program was announced.
DMC is part of a suite of federally backed risk-management tools, including the Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) program and the Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy Producers (LGM-Dairy) program, which were revamped in the 2018 Farm Bill at NMPF’s urging. DMC resulted from NMPF’s effort to improve inadequate federal margin-protection insurance. LGM-Dairy and DRP were made workable via NMPF’s efforts to remove spending caps and a ban on enrollment in multiple programs, which previously limited their usefulness.
DMC in 2022 will fully incorporate the premium-quality alfalfa price into the DMC feed cost formula, an improvement from the previous structure that used a 50-50 blend between the premium-quality price and the overall average price. USDA also will make retroactive payments to producers using the new formula, dating from January 2020.
Meanwhile, the new Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage program will enable some producers who are also enrolled in DMC to receive additional payments reflecting increases in their production since 2014 retroactively to January 2021.
More information about the DMC Program, including a webinar detailing this year’s improvements and a Supplemental DMC Q&A, can be found here.
The April payment under the Dairy Margin Coverage program fell $0.48/cwt from March to $2.56/cwt for $9.50/cwt coverage, as higher milk prices that easily outstripped rising corn costs boosted margins. The April U.S. average all-milk price rose a full dollar per hundredweight from a month earlier to $18.40/cwt, while the April DMC feed cost calculation was $0.52/cwt higher, due almost entirely to a higher corn price.
Current futures prices indicate that the DMC program margins will continue to rise at a moderate pace, thus reducing monthly payments, and surpass $9.50/cwt by late summer. USDA reported last week that as of May 24, estimated DMC payments for this year have exceeded $344 million.
