Producers who want to participate in the 2018 Dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) must sign up before the deadline on Friday, Dec. 15.
If electing to participate in MPP, producers need to complete form CCC-782, elect a coverage level and pay the $100 administrative fee.
Participation does not automatically rollover for those dairy farmers who have previously been covered by MPP, they will also need to re-enroll along with those who are signing up for the first time.
Dairy farmers do have to option to opt out of MPP and instead sign up for the Livestock Gross Margin-Dairy insurance or forego both government programs.
On a conference call during the annual meeting of the American Dairy Coalition Congressman, Mike Conaway (R., Texas), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, reported that he is working to increase the $20 million cap on Livestock Gross Margin-Dairy insurance through a supplemental appropriation bill that is currently moving through Congress.
An increase in the LGM-Dairy cap could prove beneficial for dairymen opting out of MPP and signing up for LGM. Dairy farmers who had signed up for the Dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) had been prohibited from simultaneously participating in the LGM-Dairy program.
As for the 2018 farm bill, Conaway reported his committee has all of its work done, holding more than 100 hearings over the past year. “We are ready to go,” he says. He expects Congress to begin debate on the bill by the end of January or in early February.
Conaway also commented on immigration reform, noting that Cong. Robert Goodlatte’s (R., Va.) H2C guest worker program for year-round employment is a reasonable fix. But cautioned that the H2C will not be a stand-alone program. “DACA (Defered Action on Childhood Arrivals) and eVerify are in the mix, and will complicate getting this done,” he said.