Minnesota Congressman Collin Peterson says the dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) created in the 2014 farm bill isn’t working.
“We’ve had discussions now, I have, with National Milk and some of the other leaders about looking at an $8 sweet spot and maybe raising the guarantee at the bottom that you don’t have to pay for to $5.”
The ranking member of the House Ag Committee says writing farm bills during times of high prices doesn’t work during down farm economies. “We didn’t think through this well enough in terms of what would happen when feed costs came down.”
The current margin protection guarantee is about $1.50 below dairy farmers’ cost of production. Peterson says MPP is meant to serve as an insurance program for producers, but many have still not enrolled.
--Brownfield AgNews