Dairy farm safety net dies with farm bill - The News Journal

Goodrichs last MILC check for about $2,300 came in just as the farm received another 16-ton shipment of grain. The farm has been spending about $4,000 more on feed each month $16,000 compared to about $12,000 last year for 120 milking cows and other heifers and bulls.

The milk price is good, but expenses are terrible, Goodrich said.

He figures hell have to borrow to stay afloat, and Goodrichs mother, Sally, 84, said theyre still paying off debt from when milk prices fell in 2009.

MILC paid $346 million to dairy farmers from October 2011 to September of this year. Of that, $75 million went to farmers in Wisconsin, $34 million to New York, $30 million to Pennsylvania and $9 million to farmers in Vermont.

While all dairy farms are eligible for the aid, the program includes a cap on the amount produced, so farms with more than 150 cows maxed out earlier in the year. Smaller farms, like those more often seen in Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, were still getting monthly payments when the program ended. They are the ones who are feeling the loss now.

Dick Gorder, vice president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, said some farms in parts of southern Wisconsin that usually grow all their own feed couldnt in the drought and now have to buy feed, at double the cost of three years ago.

Gorders neighbor in Mineral Point, Wis., bought all of his feed and once the bill was due he realized he couldnt make ends meet.

Within months, the herd was gone, said Gorder, who usually sells some feed, but this year had only enough for his 50 or so cows and might even have to buy some.

He said hes confident Congress will pass a farm bill but the gap is impacting people, especially people that dont have, one, feed, their own feed source, and, two, those with low equity. Those are the ones, the beginning farmers Im most concerned about, he said.

Each five-year farm bill includes money for a host of agricultural programs ranging from crop insurance to soil conservation, but the largest chunk of money, roughly 80 percent, is for food stamps. That has been a sticking point in passing a new one. Republican leaders in the House have wanted to avoid a fight between Democrats, who oppose cuts to food stamps, and Republicans, who want bigger cuts than have been proposed, close to the election. Vilsack believes the farm bill was stalled to avoid a debate about the depth of cuts to farm programs that the House leadership is envisioning.