Dairy farmers are getting some online tools to use for the Margin Protection Program, the new federal dairy safety net included in the 2014 farm bill. This news release from the National Milk Producers Federation says the group has updated its online tools for dairy farmers considering their enrollment options in the program.
To help producers make decisions, NMPF’s dedicated website, www.futurefordairy.com, offers the following materials:
· A six-page brochure explaining the program and its benefits to dairy farmers;
· A PowerPoint slide deck explaining the program in more detail;
· Four pages of Frequently Asked Questions;
· A Excel spreadsheet with milk and feed prices, and margins, dating back to 2007;
· An interactive calculator allowing farmers to estimate future margins based on their forecasts of feed and milk prices.
The Margin Protection Program was designed to insure against the kind of catastrophic losses that many dairy farmers experienced in 2009 and again in 2012. Instead of tying government support to milk prices, MPP allows farmers to protect against the difference between milk prices and feed costs. Dairy farmers insure their farms on a sliding scale, deciding both how much of their production to cover, and the level of margin to protect. The program offers more extensive coverage for low-margin conditions than the previous programs it replaced.
NMPF helped development MPP and encouraged producers to use the program.