Now that its mid-January, dairy producers are eagerly awaiting an announcement to sign up for the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program. The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) office has yet to reveal when the 2024 enrollment period will open.
Eleven House members have urged USDA to open the DMC sign-up period. Still, there is no indication when producers can select their coverage level.
Representative Randy Feenstra led a letter urging the Biden administration to open the DMC sign-up period. Rep. Feenstra tweeted, “This program helps protect dairy farmers from inflation and navigate market uncertainty at home and abroad.”
Paul Bleiberg, Executive Vice President of Government Relations with the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), says they haven’t heard an official date yet but they’re hopeful an announcement will come soon.
“As with past years, once the sign-up opens, producers will be able to sign up retroactively for full-year coverage,” he says.
Joe Outlaw, professor and Extension economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University, says the current Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program works fairly well.
“We have a good program in the DMC program. It’s working well. We’re looking at updating some production history numbers that will just make it that much more effective,” he shares, referring to the new Farm Bill.
DMC allows producers to get coverage through this important safety-net program. DMC payments are triggered when the difference between the national all-milk price and the national average feed cost (the margin) falls below the producer-selected margin trigger, ranging from Tier 1 from $4.00 to $9.50, and Tier 2 from $4.00 to $8.00, calculated monthly.
Last month, no indemnity payments were issued for the first time in 2023. According to the Farm Service Agency, 2023 payouts totaled just over $1.265 billion.
