Tag: dairy margin coverage
NMPF Welcomes New Government Relations Staffer
NMPF is pleased to announce that Claudia Larson has joined the staff as Director of Government Relations to work with NMPF Vice President of Government Relations Paul Bleiberg.
Claudia Larson
Larson arrives from the office of Representative Jim Costa (D-CA), Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture and a longtime friend of dairy and agriculture. She served as Costa’s Communications Director and Strategic Policy Associate, working on a wide range of legislative areas. Prior to her work on the Hill, Claudia was a researcher and educator at Northeastern University – including agriculture-related projects – and other Boston-area institutions. Claudia holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Political Science from Boston College and a Ph.D., also in Political Science, from Northeastern University.
“We’re very pleased to have Claudia join our team,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “Her skills and background make her a valuable addition to NMPF’s government relations efforts and we’re excited to have her working with us on behalf of America’s dairy farmers and their cooperatives.”
Congressional Farm Leaders, Secretary Perdue Thanked for Work on Swift Dairy-Program Implementation
NMPF worked closely with key House and Senate dairy leaders in March to add bipartisan momentum to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s efforts to implement the new Dairy Margin Coverage program created in the 2018 Farm Bill, highlighted by letters to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue urging dairy implementation backed by members of both parties in both chambers.
Perdue has prioritized dairy programs in his farm-bill rollout, noting in testimony before Congress on April 9 that DMC outreach materials are being prepared for distribution via Farm Service Agency offices nationwide. NMPF appreciates the Secretary’s commitment to a timeline as well as congressional support for fast, farmer-friendly implementation of reforms. The bipartisan House and Senate letters urge USDA to implement the dairy provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill as quickly as possible and in a farmer-friendly manner.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) and senior committee member Representative Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) led the House effort, and Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) led in the Senate. As noted in the letters, DMC and the other improvements will provide critical help to dairy farmers this year.
The letters, signed by 77 House members and 38 Senators from both parties, also urge USDA to engage actively with farmers on multiple levels, including mailings, phone calls and local meetings, as well as collaboration with stakeholders including state officials, cooperatives, producer groups and institutions of higher education.
NMPF participated heavily in generating support for the letters among members, and appreciates how bipartisan, bicameral efforts in Congress draw attention to the challenges dairy farmers are facing and applauds Secretary Perdue for putting forward a timeline for implementation. While urging action to speed up implementation wherever possible, the organization continues to work with USDA and Congress to ensure the DMC program best serves hard-working, economically stressed dairy producers.
DMC Payments Already Outpace Annual Premium, According to USDA Data
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service margin calculation for February indicates a second month of payouts for producers who enroll at the higher coverage levels allowed under the new Dairy Margin Coverage program.
The prices used to determine the February 2019 margin under the Dairy Margin Coverage program, the new version of the previous Margin Protection Program for Dairy, generated a margin of $8.22 per cwt. That would not have produced a payment to any farmer under the old MPP, which had a $8/cwt. ceiling. Under the new DMC, that margin will generate a payment of $1.28 per cwt. for producers who purchase coverage for this year at the new maximum level of $9.50 per cwt. For example, a farmer insuring 5 million pounds of milk production history at the maximum $9.50 per cwt. is already guaranteed to receive $6,307 and $5,347, respectively, for the first two months of the year under the DMC as currently calculated.
The February margin was $0.23 per cwt. higher than the margin in January, the result of a $0.20 higher milk price and a 3-cent lower feed cost. Together, margins from the first two months of 2019 are already enough to ensure that producers who enroll at the maximum coverage level will receive more in DMC payments during 2019 than they will pay in premiums. USDA, which has announced that signups for the 2019 program will begin by June 17, is predicting that DMC coverage at $9.50 per cwt. will continue generating payments each month from March through August.
The 2018 Farm Bill also removes the previous restriction that prohibited producers from enrolling milk in both the MPP program and the Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy) program during the same month. It further allows farmers previously prevented from enrollin
g in MPP during 2018 due to this restriction to enroll retroactively in MPP and collect payments for 2018 for the months during which they were prevented from doing so. Farmers who purchased buy-up coverage under MPP during 2014-2017 are also eligible under the Farm Bill to receive a partial refund of their net payments during those years.
USDA’s DMC margin forecasts can be accessed online.
