When he announced the recent COVID 19 Ag Relief package, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says he decided not to re-open the Dairy Margin Coverage program. Iowa State Dairy Association Executive Director Mitch Schulte says while that’s an important insurance program for dairy producers, they realize it won’t be reopened at this time so they’ll be working for other assistance.

He says his group’s members are weighing in with Congress and the Administration to push for additional assistance in the next relief package.

Schulte says they’re also hoping to see more funding being put into the PPP program and that that gets offered again.

Earlier dairy farmers had asked the USDA to consider some supply management provisions, such as having producers scale back production. The Ag Secretary said supply management would be a longer discussion and would be more costly to implement.