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Will Congress be hesitant to make dairy pricing fixes in the farm bill?

A dairy group says it remains to be seen if the 2023 Farm Bill is the right place to fix milk pricing issues.

Mykel Wedig with Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative tells Brownfield after pricing tweaks in the previous farm bill cost dairy farmers during the pandemic hundreds of millions of dollars, members of Congress are likely to be cautious to make any fast decisions.

“I think there might be some hesitancy on behalf of the Hill to touch dairy policy again but hopefully we can all come together with a solution,” she says.

Wedig says their organization currently has a task force to address milk pricing reform while partnering with leading dairy professionals and economists.

“We really want to focus in right now on the content and what that would look like, and what we want to see,” she explains.

Regardless of the route to fix the issue, Wedig says Federal Milk Marketing Orders aren’t working and aren’t transparent which is why dairy farmers are calling for better.