aWASHINGTON, September 14, 2012- In absence of a new five-year farm bill, 60 senators and representatives requested House and Senate leaders to adjust a key dairy pricing program today.
The Milk Income Loss Program (MILC) began to provide a reduced coverage level for farmers on September 1, but the members asked Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Harry Reid to find offsets to maintain the program at its previous levels.
The Senate-passed farm bill and the one passed through the House Agriculture Committee both eliminate MILC and replace it with a new margin protection policy. However, without a new five-year bill in sight, the request asks that MILC be refunded for any extension of the current farm bill.
The reduced coverage offers farmers 34 percent of the difference between the target price and the actual price instead of the previous 45 percent. Also, the volume cap declined to 2.4 million pounds per dairy farmer from almost 3 million pounds per farmer.
To read the entire letter and its signatures, click here.
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