Dairy Margin Coverage Risk Program Sign Ups Open Now

The Dairy Margin Coverage risk management program sign-ups are open until the end of April. John Berge, the acting deputy administrator of farm programs for the Farm Service Agency, says its open to any dairy operation in the country.

“It's generally something that conventional dairies take advantage of. It's a risk management tool. It helps deal with some of those uncertainties that impact the prices of milk. Last year, we put out $1.2 billion in DMC payments. It's a pretty cheap program. It costs about 15 cents per hundredweight for the 9.50 cent coverage. That risk protection is just inexpensive. So largely, this is conventional dairies that buy into this, and again, we put out quite a little bit of payments last year.”

Berge says there are several options for coverage.

“You can go onto our website, there's an online direct decision tool that's available there for people to do some homework before they go into the office and make a determination on what kind of coverage they would like. Producers have to certify with FSA that the operation is commercially marketing milk. There are several different forms that they would have available at their local county office, and then there is an administrative fee of $100. That fee is waived for farmers who are part of our either limited resource community, beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, or a military veteran.”

Producers can lock into a multi-year contract or sign up every year. For more information, go to fas.usda.gov.