Dairy Disaster Program Finalized - March 5, 2008
USDA’s Farm Service Agency published a final rule for the Dairy Disaster Assistance Payment Program III, to provide help to dairy farmers hurt by declared natural disasters between January 2005 and February 2007.
The counties, months, and disasters for which producers may be eligible to get USDA help under this program can be found on USDA’s Disaster Assistance website.
Producers must apply to their county FSA office for this assistance. Signup will run from March 5 through May 5. A previous signup period was ended early because the rule was not finalized. Producers who applied during that earlier period will have to sign up again.
The final rule answers several concerns that NMPF raised to USDA about the proposed rule. It makes clear that there will be compensation for milk dumped as the result of a natural disaster. Also, the baseline milk production per cow used to calculate losses will not be based on the statewide average for the same state that suffered the disaster.
