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More Lemonade in this Lemon of a Year by John Umhoefer - Part 2

Lemonade in the Lemon of a Year by John Umhoefer - Part 1

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Cheese Makers, Cheese Marketers Discuss How To Manage the Pandemic by Dan Strongin

Boots On The Ground
by Jim Cisler

As FSMA Takes Full Effect, Partnership Opportunities Abound To Improve Food Safety Practices by Larry Bell and Jim Mueller

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More Dairy Farmers Signing Up For USDA Risk Management Programs

Recent enrollment data for USDA’s Dairy Margin Coverag program, Dairy Revenue Protection and Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy Cattle programs indicate that US dairy operations are proactively managing their risk, USDA noted this week.

Administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program offers protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all milk price and the average feed price (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. Feed costs used in the calculation include corn, blended alfalfa hay and soybean meal.

Nearly three-quarters of all US dairy operations with established milk production history are enrolled in DMC for the 2021 program year, USDA noted. In 2020, a total of 13,532 operations were enrolled in the DMC; in 2021, participation increased to almost 18,500 operations nationwide.

Among the top 10 milk-producing states, the percentage of dairy operations with established production history enrolled in the 2021 DMC program ranged from 64.9 percent in Pennsylvania (1,663 out of 2,563 dairy operations with established production history) to 85.8 percent in Minnesota (1,904 out of 2,220 dairy operations with established production history).

Also among the top 10 milk-producing states, the percentage of 2021 DMC production history enrolled in the 2021 DMC program ranged from 66.9 percent in Idaho to 88.8 percent in Texas. Idaho and Minnesota were the only states among the top 10 to have a lower percentage of production history enrolled than dairy operations enrolled.

This enrollment success is a testament to the value of DMC to dairy operations, USDA said. DMC is a cash flow-friendly program that offers enrolled operations the option to select a $4.00 catastrophic level of coverage with no premium fee or elect to buy up coverage. The premium on buy-up coverage is based on margin triggers between $4.50 and $9.50 on 5 to 95 percent of established milk production history. For coverage at the maximum margin trigger of $9.50, dairy producers pay 15 cents per hundredweight of

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