Congress and farm groups have been working with the USDA to provide help for the ailing dairy industry, plagued by the lowest milk prices in many years. Chris Galen of the National Milk Producers Federation says the dairy safety net program that was put in place two and a half years ago is not paying off. He says the Dairy Margin Protection Program needs to be reworked by Congress.

He says some false assumptions were made when the Federation brought the dairy insurance program forward. And Galen says some changes need to be made for it to work properly.

Minnesota Milk Producers Association President Pat Lunemann says the margin protection program was intended to work like crop insurance, but it isn’t and needs to be modified to make it effective.

Milk prices have sunk to their lowest level in five years. In response, the USDA this week purchased 11 million pounds of cheese to help out.