The U.S. Department of Agriculture has started accepting applications for the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program as of Oct. 13 for 2021 enrollment.
“This year has been a market roller coaster for the dairy industry, and the Dairy Margin Coverage program is a valuable tool dairy producers can use to manage risk,” said Bill Northey, USDA’s under secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, during a roundtable at a dairy in Chippewa Falls. “We were excited to roll out this new and improved program through the 2018 Farm Bill, and if you haven’t enrolled in previous years, we highly encourage you to check it out.”
Signup runs through Dec. 11. DMC is a voluntary risk management program that 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. DMC payments triggered for seven months in 2019 and three months so far in 2020. More than 23,000 operations enrolled in DMC in 2019, and more than 13,000 in 2020.
