The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has re-opened their Dairy Assistance, Investment and Relief Initiative program. Minnesota Milk Producers Association Executive Director Lucas Sjostrom says that’s a state funding program to help dairy producers who signed up for five years of the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program.

He says the state Ag Department and the Milk Producers Association received requests for re-opening of the state assistance program from a number of dairy producers and that led to the re-enrollment opportunity.

Sjostrom says once they know how many producers are in the re-opened sign up, then the second round of checks will go out.

Sjostrom says those producers enrolling for the first time in the state dairy program need to submit four forms and post mark them to the Minnesota Agriculture Department by December 31st. Those include a state application form, an IRS Form W-9, a copy of their DMC enrollment form and a statement from their processors showing the amount of milk produced in 2018.