Dairy Policy

Dairy Policy—The dairy sector of the agriculture industry is critical to the economical and nutritional health of this nation. NASDA actively supports policies which continue to provide a market safety net for U.S. dairy producers. Dairy policy must continue to be flexible and available to producers as markets continue to vary greatly year to year. Milk prices should reflect local value rather than national price. The market price of farm milk should be determined by its local availability and marketing demand per classification of use. Dairy producers should be responsible only for the marketing/transportation costs associated with their milk as are other farm commodity producers.

The establishment of a dairy industry security reserve fund would help to protect American dairy producers from losses resulting from bankruptcy of a processor/handler. This fund could be funded through assessments on processors not to exceed two cents per hundredweight. Producers who suffer a loss because of the bankruptcy of their processor/handler could make a claim against the fund for unpaid milk shipments to that handler.

Currently, the issue of dairy producer security is left to each individual state; however, only about half of the states have dairy producer security laws. NASDA believes that the absence of adequate protection in many states, together with the confusion that is created for processors who have operations in several states with a variety of different producer security laws, requires that this problem be resolved at the federal level.

NASDA supports continuation of the Milk Income Loss Contracts (MILC) program, with adjustments to double the per farm production cap and establish flexibility to encourage multi-family or multi-generational dairy farm operations.

NASDA supports continuation of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT), the self-help program administered by the National Milk Producers Federation and maintaining states' right to create multi-state marketing agreements in order to enhance milk prices within their regions. 

NASDA also supports creation of a revenue insurance pilot program to provide comprehensive and adequate revenue insurance for dairy producers that is cost effective with payments triggered by price levels which enhance the viability of small-scale dairy farms.