NMPF Thanks President Trump for Signing Farm Bill

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) thanked President Donald Trump for signing a farm bill that enacts necessary reforms for dairy farmers. The organization looks forward to working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to quickly implement several new programs.

With NMPF Chairman Randy Mooney in attendance, Trump praised the hard work of American farmers and noted Congress’s efforts to assist them. Dairy has been noted as a big winner in the bill, with new programs that assist dairy producers facing low prices. Important policy reforms include:

• Much more affordable and higher coverage levels in the new Dairy Margin Coverage program (DMC) (renamed from the Margin Protection Program) that will allow all dairy producers to insure margins up to $9.50/cwt. on their Tier I (first 5 million pounds) production history
• Lower-cost $5.00 margin coverage, allowing farm operations wishing to cover more than 5 million pounds of production to have a higher level of affordable catastrophic protection
• Expanded access to additional risk management tools, which allows producers to participate in the DMC along with options including the Livestock Gross Margin insurance program and the new Dairy Revenue Protection program.

“By signing the farm bill, the president has acknowledged the problems dairy producers face and has put his stamp on improving their circumstances,” said Mooney, who operates Mooney Dairy in Rogersville, Missouri, with his wife Jan. “That only increases momentum for USDA to put these programs in effect quickly, assisting producers in a time of need.”

USDA earlier this week highlighted implementation of the dairy programs as an early priority. Once USDA draws up rules to administer its initiatives, producers will sign up for their coverage retroactive to Jan. 1.

NMPF again thanked Reps. K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) and Collin Peterson (D-MN), the chairman and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, as well as Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, for their work on reaching a final agreement.