American dairy farmers have until Sept. 30 to enroll in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency’s (USDA FSA) Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP Dairy) for 2017.
The voluntary risk management program, which replaces the Milk Income Loss Contact (MILC) program, was established in the 2014 Farm Bill.
The program offers dairy producers catastrophic coverage, at no cost to the producer, other than an annual $100 administrative fee and various levels of buy-up coverage, according to FSA.
Catastrophic coverage provides payments to enrolled dairy farmers when the national dairy production margin is less than $4 per hundredweight.
The national dairy production margin is the difference between the price of milk and average feed costs.
A web tool is available to help dairy farmers calculate their options at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/mpptool.
Enrollees will remain in the program through 2018 and must pay a $100 administrative fee each year. Producers will have the option to change their level of coverage during open enrollment each year.