Program on Dairy Markets and Policy

It's the 25th celebration of our Annual Workshop for Dairy Economists and Policy Analysts! This year we will be meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan—a rapidly evolving state for milk production and dairy processing. The theme for this year's program is "Up? Down? Sideways? What Direction for Dairy!" The meeting takes place April 30 through May 1 with an optional farm and plant tour on May 2. Please join with friends from around the country and indeed the world. More information about the program and registration links can be found in our Workshops section of the web site.

34 days and counting...parts of the government remain on shutdown and we don't have a Milk Production report. But that doesn't stop Mark and Bob from discussing the current state of dairy markets. We're still forecasting gradual improvement in milk prices through 2019 but there may be a brighter light by the time we get toward the end of the year. The outlook video is about 11 minutes long and you can access it here or from the Podcast section of the web site.

The Conference Committee of the House and Senate agriculture committees today released their compromise version of the next Farm Bill — the Agricultural Act of 2018. This compromise will now go back to the respective chambers for a vote (which is expected to be positive in both) and then to the President for his signature. If all goes well, we will have a new set of farm, food, forestry, etc legislation in place for the new year.

We have written a new Briefing Paper which is a summnary of the dairy provisions contained in the bill. Although the Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers was badly tarnished by its inability to provide assistance to dairy farmers when most everyone felt market conditions warranted some help, the new program Dairy Margin Coverage program represents a very significantly revised version of MPP-Dairy. It will most certainly be well worth a serious look by farms of about average size or smaller, and it offers some appealing income risk management possibilities for all but the very largest farms.