{"id":6143,"date":"2012-03-30T12:24:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T18:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=6143"},"modified":"2012-03-30T15:04:17","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T21:04:17","slug":"idaho-dairymen-eligible-for-usda-subsidy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/30\/idaho-dairymen-eligible-for-usda-subsidy\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Dairymen Eligible For USDA Subsidy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6147\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 374px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The Idaho Dairymen's Association says there are 569 daries operating in the Gem State.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/DairyCow_Mingerspice_flickr1.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6147\" title=\"DairyCow_Mingerspice_flickr\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/DairyCow_Mingerspice_flickr1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"374\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/DairyCow_Mingerspice_flickr1.jpg 374w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/DairyCow_Mingerspice_flickr1-239x300.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 374px) 100vw, 374px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Mingerspice \/ Flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Idaho Dairymen&#39;s Association says there are 569 dairies operating in the Gem State.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For the first time in almost two years, Idaho dairymen are eligible for a\u00a0<del><\/del> federal subsidy<del><\/del> that compensates them when milk prices fall substantially below the costs of production.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture <a href=\"http:\/\/content.govdelivery.com\/bulletins\/gd\/USFSA-3573b1\" target=\"_blank\">announced this week<\/a> it has reinstated payments to dairymen under the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program.\u00a0 It&#8217;s<del><\/del> the first time the USDA has approved such<del><\/del> payments since April 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Farm Service Agency Administrator Bruce Nelson said producers are eligible for almost $0.39 per hundredweight (cwt) of milk. \u201cDairy producers are affected by the market price for milk and the price of feed to sustain their herds,\u201d said Nelson, in a press release this week.<strong><\/strong> <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;MILC payments are triggered when the Boston Class I milk price falls below $16.94 per hundredweight, after adjustment for the cost of dairy feed rations. MILC payments are calculated each month using the latest milk price and feed cost&#8221; &#8211; USDA<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <del><\/del>executive <del><\/del>director of the Idaho Dairymen&#8217;s Association says all <a title=\"Understanding Idaho\u2019s Dairy Industry\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/dairy\/\" target=\"_blank\">Idaho dairies<\/a> will qualify for the payments.\u00a0 Bob Naerebout says the current price of milk an Idaho producer gets is about $15.72 cwt.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Naerebout says the cost of producing that milk is between $17.50-$18.25 cwt.\u00a0 The gap is so wide because feed prices are high, and the demand for milk has been met.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/08\/dairy-farmers-struggle-to-make-it-in-a-global-marketplace\/\">Dairy Farmers Struggle To Make It In A Global Marketplace<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/10\/14\/idaho-dairy-farmers-struggle-to-find-optimism\/\">Idaho Dairy Farmers Struggle to Find Optimism<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/10\/05\/idaho-dairymen-push-for-reform\/\">Idaho Dairymen Push for Reform<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/10\/DairyCows_EdSnowshoe_getty1-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/dairy\/\">Understanding Idaho\u2019s Dairy Industry<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Naerebout says MILC payments do some good for the industry, but are inadequate for Idaho dairy producers.\u00a0 &#8220;It sends poor market signals,&#8221; says Naerebout.\u00a0 &#8220;It goes into place when the price [of milk] drops.\u00a0 The price drops when the market says we have enough milk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Naerebout says the reinstatement of MILC payments shows just how soft the market is, and he&#8217;d rather the industry respond to that than rely on subsidies.\u00a0 &#8220;As an industry, we have to do a better job of controlling production or increasing demand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>MILC payments are part of the 2008 Farm Bill, which is in effect until Sept. 30, 2012.\u00a0 Naerebout hopes the new farm bill won&#8217;t include the MILC program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in almost two years, Idaho dairymen are eligible for a\u00a0 federal subsidy that compensates them when milk prices fall substantially below the costs of production. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week it has reinstated payments to dairymen under the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the first time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":6147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[49,97],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6158,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143\/revisions\/6158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}