USDA confirms dairy market loss payments

WASHINGTON – The Secretary of Agriculture announced that Dairy Market Loss Assistance Payments (DMLA-III) will be made starting this week.

The payments were authorized under section 805 of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001.

The first payments will be made to dairy producers who received payments last year under DMLA-II.

For DMLA-III, the payment rate will be $.6468 per hundredweight (cwt.) and payments will be available on production up to 39,000 cwt. DMLA II payments were limited to 26,000 cwt.

DMLA-III payments will be handled similar to DMLA-II in that the payments will be automatically paid to eligible DMLA-II recipients by Farm Service Agency county offices.

A signup will be held in early 2001 for new dairy operations and for dairy operations that were paid on less than 12-months production under previous DMLA programs. Dates will be announced after the first of the year.

Dairy producers paid on less than 12-months production have the option of changing their production base to the period Oct. 1, 1999, through Sept. 30, 2000, and having their DMLA-III benefits recalculated accordingly.