Many of the Ag sectors are hurting during this Coronavirus pandemic. However, it seems to be especially hard on the dairy industry. The industry faced several years of setbacks and hardships and really looked at 2019 as a place where they could hit the brakes and start to claw their way back up. Now, they are facing another set of challenges along with the rest of agriculture. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is looking to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue to help.
NMPF Spokesman Chris Galen says the first thing that could be done to help dairy farmers is to reopen a signup period for the Dairy Margin Coverage Program. He says the market climate isn?t what it was when producers signed up last year.
NMPF says there should be compensation for producers who are having to dispose of milk. Milk production is at a seasonal high point and service disruptions are high due to Coronavirus concerns.
Galen says USDA needs to move quickly on all three requests as the economic pressures on dairy producers keep rising.
Even with the passage of a $2 trillion-dollar stimulus package, Galen says more work will be needed later this spring, and dairy farmers don?t want to find themselves in an even deeper hole before that happens.
