The National Dairy Program In the New Farm
Bill
Prepared by the Offices of Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator
Jim Jeffords and Rep. Bernie Sanders
April 26, 2002
Senator Leahy and his colleagues on the House and Senate
Agriculture Committees, assisted by Senator Jeffords,
Congressman Sanders and others, reached an agreement on the
key issues that differed in the separate versions of the farm
bill passed earlier by the House and the Senate. The new farm
bill, when enacted, will assist America’s family farmers,
expand economic opportunity in rural communities, strengthen
programs to protect the environment and improve the
nutritional safety net for low-income Americans. The new farm
bill, in its final form, still must be approved by the Senate
and the House of Representatives and signed into law by the
President.
If enacted, the new farm bill will establish a new national
dairy program, sponsored by the Vermont Congressional
delegation, that will provide cash assistance to dairy farmers
comparable to what dairy farmers from Vermont and other New
England States received under the Northeast Dairy Compact.
Senator Leahy, Senator Jeffords and Congressman Sanders
originally pressed for an extension and expansion of the
Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact. After Members of Congress
from other regions blocked these efforts, the national dairy
program, approved by House and Senate negotiators, was offered
as a compromise.
If the farm bill is enacted, dairy farmers across the
country will receive monthly payments – when fluid milk prices
fall – nearly identical to what New England producers received
under the Northeast Dairy Compact. Like the Compact, whenever
the federal minimum price for fluid milk in Boston falls below
$16.94 per hundred weight, participating dairy farmers will
receive a payment. The national dairy program will pay
producers 45 percent of the difference between $16.94 and the
Class I fluid milk price in Boston. Like the Compact, payments
will be made on a monthly basis and will fluctuate with milk
prices; no payments will be made when the fluid milk price in
Boston is $16.94, or higher. Under this program, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation, not
milk processors, will make the payments.
Producers should begin receiving payments under this new
national dairy program early this fall. USDA is required to
begin signing up farmers to participate in the program not
later than 60 days after the new farm bill is signed into law.
Like the Compact, producers will receive payments on a monthly
basis: USDA is required to pay producers not later than 60
days after the end of each month for which a payment is made.
A significant feature of the new national dairy program is
that it will be retroactive, covering market losses due to low
prices since December 1, 2001. On that date, there was a
devastating drop in the price for Class I fluid milk. The
Vermont Congressional Delegation estimates that the
retroactive payments to Vermont dairy farmers covering losses
from December 2001 through April 2002 will total more than $9
million. Producers should receive these retroactive payments
at the same time they receive their first payments early this
fall.
Whereas the Compact made payments to producers based on the
amount of milk marketed in the six-state Compact region, the
national dairy program will make payments based on milk
marketed in any of the 50 states. However, each producer will
be able to receive payments on no more than 2.4 million pounds
of production per year. Only milk marketed during a month in
which a payment is made will count toward that total. The
Compact had no similar production limit. The 2.4 million-pound
cap is equal roughly to the annual production of 140 cows.
The national dairy program is authorized through September
30, 2005. The bill also re-authorizes the milk price support
program under which the government purchases powdered milk,
cheese and butter offered to it at the equivalent of $9.90 per
hundredweight. It also re-authorizes the Dairy Export
Incentives Program (DEIP); requires importers to pay the dairy
research and promotion program assessment; and authorizes a
new Johnes disease research initiative.
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