Still, it’s likely be small comfort to upstate New York dairy farmers, according to a spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau.
That’s because just 180 of the state’s 2,500 farms that participate in the 2016 Margin Protection Program for Dairy, as it’s called, will receive a check, and the amount they’ll share is $404,000, or an average of $2,244 per farm.
«It’s something,» said Farm Bureau spokesman Steve Ammerman. «But it’s certainly not going to make a significant difference for those farms and the industry in New York state.
«It’s not providing the safety net we had hoped for,» Ammerman added.
Drought conditions this summer have cut the feed grain harvest, especially for farmers in central and western New York state, Ammerman said. Farmers who previously grew their own feed will now have to buy it, he said.
Farmers receive payments when the margin between the milk price per hundredweight — about 11.63 gallons — and the average cost of feed is less than $4, and can purchase «buy up» to cover them at different «trigger levels» when the difference is between $4 and $8.
Most farmers this year were at the minimum $4 level, when the trigger was $6, according to Ammerman.
The payments are made when during any one of six consecutive two-month periods for the year, the margin falls below the level of protection chosen by a farmer. The payments are being made for the May/June period.
Farmers last year paid in $33 million in premiums and fees, but just $708,000 was paid out nationwide, Ammerman said.
The payment rate for this May/June is approximately $11.2 million, the largest since the program began in 2014.
«We understand the nation’s dairy producers are experiencing challenges due to market conditions,» said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. «I want to urge dairy producers to use this opportunity to evaluate their enrollment options for 2017, as the enrollment period is currently scheduled to end September 30, 2016.»
Once enrolled, farmers are committed to the program through the end of the current farm bill in 2018.
Ammerman said that as talks begin next year for the 2018 farm bill, the bureau will be looking for improvements over the current program.
Source: TimesUnion
Link: http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-business/article/Few-upstate-NY-farms-to-benefit-from-dairy-feed-9123655.php