Enrollment for the Dairy Margin Insurance Coverage program for 2021 opens on Tuesday and runs through December 11 of this year. The D-M-C is a voluntary risk management program that offers dairy producers protection when the difference between the all milk price and the average feed price (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. Minnesota Milk Producers Associations Executive Director Lucas Sjostrom says D-M-C is more helpful for smaller and medium sized producers.
More than 23,000 operations enrolled in D-M-C in 2019 and more than 13,000 in 2020. Sjostrom says D-M-C was most beneficial for dairy farmers with their first 200 cows.
He says those dairy farmers who enroll for the full five years usually see the most benefits and those who signed up this year were protected during a very difficult year economically for milk producers.
The USDA has a website to help dairy producers calculate total premium costs and administrative fees associated with D-M-C. That’s at farmers.gov. Sjostrom says producers can also contact their office at Minnesota Milk for assistance.
