Dairy Report: Preserving MN Dairies and DMC Feed Formula Revisions

Minnesota is trying to keep its state’s dairy industry going after the state legislator passed an $8 million plan called the Minnesota Dairy Assistance and Relief Initiative. Dairy producers enrolled in the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program can expect to start seeing retroactive payments within the coming days. For more on these stories watch the AgDay video above or read the following news brief links.

Minnesota Aiming to Preserve Its Dairy Farms

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture recently rolled out a state program that aims to inject cash into the state's struggling dairy industry.

More than 1,100 Minnesota dairy farms closed up between 2012 and 2017, leaving only about 3,600 farms in an industry beset by years of low milk prices and a long, hard winter that delivered enough snow and wind to collapse the roofs of at least two dozen dairy barns.

The Minnesota Legislature passed the $8 million Minnesota Dairy Assistance, Investment and Relief Initiative (DAIRI) this year, in response to crisis in the dairy industry in Minnesota, the seventh-biggest dairy producer in the United States.

To read more, click here.

Revised DMC Feed Formula Will Add 14 to 31₵ To Payment

The revised feed margin to the Dairy Margin Coverage program, which now includes a 50% blend of premium and supreme alfalfa hay prices will add 14 to 31₵ to the feed cost formula, resulting in a lower income-over-feed-cost margin and therefore greater payments.

That’s according to Michael Nepveux, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation. “This adjustment more closely aligns with rations that dairy producers are actually feeding their cows and more accurately reflects the cost of including top-quality alfalfa in feed,” he says.

Want more Dairy Report videos? Watch:

• Dairy Report: Forage Growing Difficulties; Maine Manure to Energy
• Dairy Report: USDA Margin Coverage; World’s First Floating Dairy
• Dairy Report: Some Trade Disputes Simmer, Others Heat Up