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Cooperative leader encourages farmers to sign up for MFP & DMC

A dairy cooperative is encouraging producers to take advantage of two programs before it’s too late.  John Rettler from Neosho, Wisconsin is a dairy farmer and president of FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative.  He tells Brownfield signup for the Market Facilitation Program, which ends Friday, has been popular with all farmers. “I think the majority of the farmers are using it, and like I said, it isn’t a cure-all but it sure absolutely helps in the times that we’re in.”

Rettler says another program that dairy farmers have strongly backed this year is the new Dairy Margin Coverage program.  He calls DMC a better risk management tool and signed his farm up long-term. “I already paid in my dues for the year 2020, so that’s been all taken care of. It’s a lot better than the one that we had, and like I said, anything helps in this industry. It isn’t a cure-all but it’s a lot better than the MPP was.”

The Dairy Margin Coverage program signups for 2020 end December 13^th.   USDA says dairy farmers earned more than $300 million dollars from the DMC program in 2019.