USDA Sending $125 Million More to Dairy Farmers

January 20, 2000

USDA is sending another $125 million in direct payments to dairy farmers who saw their milk prices decline last year. The money is in addition to $200 million distributed last summer.

To distribute limited resources equitably among all producers, the program provides payments based on an operation's milk production in 1997 or 1998, up to the first 26,000 hundredweight of production. All farmers who produced milk during the last quarter of calendar year 1998 are eligible.

Those who are eligible but did not participate in last summer's program must sign up at the local Farm Service Agency office from Jan. 24-Feb. 28. Farmers who participated in last summer's program will receive payments automatically and do not need to reapply for assistance.

The amount of payments will be calculated after sign-up is complete.

There was little criticism of the way USDA is regulating the program from the National Milk Producers Federation, but NMPF would have preferred to limit payments to those farmers in business at the end of 1999 and avoid the possibility that producers who may have left the dairy business since 1998 would receive some of the money.

"Although the $125 million represents just a drop in the milk bucket in the overall scheme of things, given where prices have been lately, every little bit helps," says Jerry Kozak, NMPF CEO. "This payment doesn't represent a windfall for anyone. An extra $2,000 won't mean the difference between staying or leaving the business, but it may help some producers pay some bills at the end of the month."