Special Report

Missouri dairy bill creates margin insurance

The establishment of a dairy producer margin insurance program is one of the key bills to be considered by the Missouri House Agri-Business Committee this legislative session. Representative Casey Guernsey, who chairs that committee, tells Brownfield Ag News that the state’s dairy future without it is “pretty bleak”, adding, “If we continue on the path we’re on right now, if we lose as many dairy farmers in the next five years as we lost in the last five years, we’re going to reach the point where we will no longer have a processing industry in Missouri.”

Guernsey, a Republican, says he is “very fiscally conservative” and that’s a component of this legislation, “I don’t believe in taxes. I don’t want to raise a tax. I don’t want to raise a fee. I want to be able to, however, leverage the tax revenue that’s generated by existing dairy product sales – and the processors have more or less come up with this – to allow for a margin protection insurance component to be created in the state of Missouri unlike any other program in the country.”

Guernsey says this bill (HB 1326) would “dovetail nicely” with federal farm legislation.  Guernsey tells Brownfield if the Farm Bill passes Congress (which it did last week and was signed into law by President Obama) it would also serve as a stand-alone fix for Missouri’s dairy industry. He says it would help prevent dairy farmers in this state from going under like his family’s dairy business was forced to do. Plus, Guernsey says, it would attract more dairy operators to Missouri from out-of-state.  Missouri is and has been for some time, a milk-deficit state, importing more milk into the state than exporting it.

Other legislative priorities for his committee, Guernsey tells Brownfield is limiting liability for cattlemen on their ranches, giving them the same protection as equine facilities and agri-tourism locations in the state.  Another is setting weight limits for row crop farmers that match surrounding states.

AUDIO: Tom Steever interviews Rep. Casey Guernsey (5:00 mp3)