News

Former ag chair against raising dairy program limit

The former chairman of the House Ag Committee doesn’t think the next farm bill will include a big change to the Dairy Margin Coverage program. 

Collin Peterson tells Brownfield he doesn’t expect Congress will approve expanding the Dairy Margin Coverage program past the current $9.50 margin level.  “I do not, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” 

Peterson says when the DMC’s predecessor, the Margin Protection Program was rolled out, economists thought $6.50 above feed costs was the right amount to prevent impacting the market, but that was wrong.  “So now, we ended up with $9.50 above feed cost, but we limited it to five million pounds, which is about 200 cows.” 

Peterson says one reason he pushed for the existing limits was to guarantee the aging producers with small dairies could remain viable until retirement.  “Dairy is not going to be what it was. It’s not going to be small dairies. You know, you’re going to have some organic guys that are going to make money and, you know, operate but it’s going to be a different world, and that’s not all bad.” 

Peterson says it will also be tough for Congress to find money to expand risk management coverage in the next farm bill.  He’s also expecting the 2023 farm bill to take a long time to pass Congress. 

Audio: Collin Peterson discusses dairy and farm bill issues with Brownfield’s Larry Lee