Lower prices trigger milk program payments
By WILLIAM J. HARMON
Executive Director
Marion County FSA
The Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program is a financial safety net for dairy operations established under the 2002 Farm Bill.
County offices of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) provide payments to eligible dairy farmers when the Boston Class I milk price falls below $16.94. Due to recent price level drops in milk marketing values, USDA has established a MILC payment rate of $0.0315 per hundredweight based on June 2005 production marketed.
Eligible producers should submit production evidence stubs or other milk handler records to our office for processing of this latest MILC payment. The last time dairy producers were paid MILC program benefits was April 2004. Producers may find a record of monthly MILC payment rates on the following Internet web site at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/psd/MILC.htm.
Payments are issued up to a maximum of 2.4 million pounds of milk produced and marketed annually per dairy operation.
