Minnesota’s dairy industry is in a financial crisis. Last year alone over 10 percent of the dairies in the state or just under 300 operations went out of business. State Milk Producer’s Association Executive Director Lucas Sjostrom says milk prices have been depressed for the past four years and now all sizes and types of dairy operations are being negatively impacted.
He says the good news is Minnesota lawmakers are working on an assistance program for dairy producers that’s generated through a rebate program tied to federal dairy insurance.
Sjostrom says by tying this assistance to the federal insurance program, it’s not just a hand out and it’s also modeled after what other states are doing.
Sjostrom says his group is also asking state legislators for tax relief by adopting a conformity provision to the new federal tax law when farmers sell through cooperatives. He says they also want the state to make conservation payments to eligible dairy farms that adopt sound conservation and sustainability practices.
