Missouri dairy farmers have been hoping for action on a piece of state legislation that would help pay their premiums on the federal farm bill Margin Protection Program. The program pays benefits when the margin between feed costs and milk prices threatens profitability. Missouri Dairy Association Vice Chairman Lloyd Gunter says the legislation considered by Missouri state lawmakers would provide incentive for the state’s dairy farmers to buy the insurance.
“What dairy farmers we have right now we need to keep, because there’s about 6,000 jobs viable to the state of Missouri, we’ve got 15 processing plants in the state of Missouri, Dairy Farmers of America is located in Kansas City,” Gunter told Brownfield Ag News. “We want to keep them in the state because they’re very viable to the state of Missouri.”
As of late Wednesday afternoon, SB 506, in which the dairy language is contained, was passed by the Missouri House. Meanwhile, the Missouri Senate was scheduled to consider HB 1326, which contains identical language.
Money used to help Missouri dairy producers buy Margin Protection insurance is to be leveraged from tax revenue generated by existing dairy product sales.
The number of dairy farms and milk cows in Missouri has steadily declined resulting in half of the milk consumed in the state being brought in from other dairy producing states. It’s hoped that the incentives to purchase Margin Protection insurance will attract dairy farmers.