Connecticut Dairy Farmers

Look To Congress For Reform

By Ana Radelat

©The Connecticut Mirror

WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s dairy farmers are cautiously optimistic that a new federal safety net will help them survive rising costs and falling prices.

“Something needed to be done,” said Melinda Greenbacker, who runs a family dairy farm in Durham. “What we have now just isn’t working.”

In a massive farm bill, the Senate last week agreed to toss out the Milk Income Loss Contract program, known as MILC, that gives subsidy payments to dairy farmers when prices are low.

MILC would be replaced by a voluntary insurance program that would pay out when the cost of producing milk exceeds the money made from selling it.

Insurance premiums would be subsidized on a farmer’s first 4 million pounds of production, the amount produced by the average Connecticut dairy farm of 200 to 250 cows. Premiums would rise with the amount of coverage and range from about 1 cent for every 100 pounds of milk insured to almost $1.

Premiums for bigger producers would be higher.

Farmers who enroll in the insurance program would also participate in a price stabilization program that discourages them from producing large quantities of milk during a price dip.

Dairy farmers usually respond to decreasing prices by producing more, resulting in even lower prices. The new dairy program would pay farmers less for losses on milk that’s above their normal production.

“Most of the farmers around here are a little unsure of the insurance program, but it has the potential to be very helpful,” said Greg Peracchio, a fourth-generation dairy farmer in Coventry.

Greenbacker and Peracchio agree the problem with the current federal safety net for dairy farmers is that it does not take into consideration the rising price of labor, gasoline, and feed.

There are concerns from some dairy farmers who have never had to buy insurance before, unlike corn, wheat and cotton farmers, who depend on crop insurance.

“I don’t think you can get 100 percent consensus on anything,” Galen said.

Now the fate of the new dairy program rests in the House.

 (This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics, and public policy in the state.)