Dairy producers now have until Oct. 30 to apply for disaster-related assistance under the Milk Loss Program, USDA announced.

Launched earlier this year by USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA), the new program offers financial assistance to eligible dairy operations for milk that was dumped or removed, without compensation, from the commercial milk market due to qualifying weather events and the consequences of those weather events that inhibited delivery or storage of milk," during 2020, 2021 and 2022."

Examples of MLP-covered "consequences" range from power outages to impassable roads and infrastructure losses.

Specified weather events for all the three calendar years include droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex) and smoke exposure. Tornadoes are considered a qualifying disaster event for 2022 only.

FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux in a statement said extending the MLP's deadline ensures "all dairy farmers in need of assistance will now have adequate time to apply.”

"We recognize that MLP benefits are critical to the financial recovery of dairy operations significantly impacted by weather-related disasters that inhibited their ability to deliver or store their milk in one, or even multiple years,” Ducheneaux said.

Funding for the program stems from the 2022 Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act, which provided $10 billion for crop losses, including milk losses due to qualifying disaster events that occurred in 2020 and 2021. The 2023 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act also provides $3 billion for disaster assistance for similar losses that occurred in 2022.

The milk loss claim period is each calendar month that milk was dumped or removed from the commercial market, and each MLP application covers the loss in a single calendar month.

Milk loss that occurs in more than one calendar month due to the same qualifying weather event requires a separate application for each month. Days that are eligible for assistance begin on the date the milk was removed or dumped and for concurrent days milk was removed or dumped.

Once the dairy operation restarts milk marketing, the dairy operation is ineligible for assistance unless after restarting commercial milk marketing, additional milk is dumped due to the same qualifying disaster event.

The duration of yearly claims is limited to 30 days for each of the three calendar years.

Interested producers should contact their local FSA county office for more information.

Source - https://www.farmweeknow.com