Administrator for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), Val Dolcini, explained what programs his agency has to assist livestock producers during National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk last week in Kansas City, MO.
“The Dairy Margin Protection Program (DMPP) is going to cover the margin between the national price of milk and the cost of feed. And while milk prices are pretty good today, it wasn’t but a few years ago that they weren’t very good at all. DMPP is a good part of the Dairy Safety Net Program that we can offer dairy operations all across the country.”
There are different type of coverage depending on each operations needs. The deadline to sign up for the program is right around the corner. December 5th is the last day producers can take advantage of this assistance. Val said there are many web-based tools producers can utilize to learn more about DMPP coverage options. Those can be found on the FSA website.
Continuing to talk about livestock, Val shared more about the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) which was the first big Farm Bill program FSA rolled out. “LFP since then has assisted thousands of livestock operations around the nation. It is still going strong throughout the Southwest in states like Texas and Oklahoma have appointments through the new year.” With national livestock herd numbers at an all-time low, LFP is in place for the long haul to aid producers in increasing those numbers.
Learn more about these programs and the upcoming country office election when listen to or download my complete interview with Val here: Interview with Val Dolcini, FSA