Digest Highlights

• Senate proposal opens school lunchrooms to all varieties of milk
• April fluid sales weaker
• Global Dairy Trade index lower again
• Minnesota announces further DMC premium rebate details

U.S. dairy farmers have shown the capacity to turn on milk production quickly, but the pace of growth in recent months is the slowest dating back to lengthy stretches in 2011-12 and 2014.

It will likely be months before the farmers receive payments under a second Market Facilitation Program (MFP). For crop farmers, one of the issues the USDA must work through is the relationship between “prevent plant” crop insurance policies and how they impact MFP payments. Specifics related to the level of payments dairy farmers will receive has also not been announced. (Read: USDA announces new farmer aid package to offset impact of tariffs, dairy details yet to come.)

Late changes in Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program calculations make the program even more attractive for dairy farmers. DMC sign-up begins June 17 at local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices.

Digest Highlights

• Risk management: Two important dates
• Dairy turns attention to USMCA
• U.S. organic sales topped $50 billion in 2018
• Another try: Proposal opens H-2A visas to dairy
• Hart Dairy gains funding
• Wisconsin Dairy Task Force 2.0 wrapping up work
• University of Minnesota Dairy Education Center renamed
• Missouri law addresses CAFOs

The dairy news was mixed to mostly better in the USDA’s monthly World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, released June 11.

A proposal to give livestock farmers flexibility in dealing with weather-related feed emergencies has been introduced in the House of Representatives. The Feed Emergency Enhancement During Disasters Act (FEEDD Act) was co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minnesota) and Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota). It would give farmers and ranchers additional emergency flexibility to help alleviate feed concerns, as well as promote conservation in years of excessive moisture, flooding and drought.

In late May, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the USDA would roll out a three-pronged aid package aimed at helping U.S. farmers suffering financial damages due to ongoing trade disputes.

You’re busy – milking cows, watching rain clouds and making hay. With that in mind, Progressive Dairyman looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business. In recognition of your time, we’ll attempt to summarize recent events or actions making dairy headlines and reported in our weekly digital newsletter, Progressive Dairyman Extra. Then we’ll try to put that news into perspective and briefly describe how it might affect you.

With ongoing tariffs and the potential threat of more to come, the value of April 2019 U.S. ag exports fell below imports for the first time since May 2017.