Statewide, Iowa — Dairy producers have until the end of the month to sign up for the Margin Protection Program, or MPP.
Ryan Breuer, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach dairy specialist says that the 2014 Farm Bill changed dairy farm support programs to one that is insurance-based now called the “Margin Protection Program for Dairy” or “MPP”. The previous program, Milk Income Loss Contract or MILC, was replaced by MPP. Breuer tells us about MPP.
He says this new program supports producer margins, not milk prices.
Breuer says that the program does not affect retail milk prices at the grocery store. He also says that once dairy producers sign up for MPP they don’t need to sign up again unless they want to make changes.
More information from ISU Extension:
MPP is an insurance-based 2014 Farm Bill program that allows dairy farmers an opportunity to protect against declines in the difference between a two-month average US milk price and a two-month average feed cost. The 2014 Farm Bill specifies how milk price and feed cost is determined and each is used to calculate a “US milk margin.”
Dairy farmers can select margin coverage from $4 to $8 in 50ȼ increments. Farmers also choose the amount of historic milk production covered from 25% to 90% in 5% increments. MPP premiums for 2016 have two tiers of cost, less than 4 million pounds of milk production covered and 4 million and above. Premiums must be paid either fully at coverage election time or 25% by Feb. 1 with the remainder by June 1.
