Agricultural Business Management News

September 20 is the last day for dairy farmers to enroll in the Dairy Margin Coverage program with your local Farm Service Agency office.   Even dairy farmers who have signed up for the program can change their coverage levels or the one year or five-year option for the program until September 20. Just a reminder, Dairy Margin Coverage is part of the new farm bill.  It is the replacement for Margin Protection Program (MPP). DMC uses a nation-wide formula for feed cost and subtracts this from the US all milk price. This is the national milk price to feed margin and is calculated monthly. The premiums for DMC are substantially reduced from MPP, Tier 1 is under 5 million pounds.   Tier II is 5 million pounds and up. DMC premiums are listed in Table 1.   Discounted premiums are available for Tier I if a farm signs up for five consecutive years of DMC in 2019 – which is a 25 percent reduction in the premium cost. If a dairy farm participated in MPP-Dairy during 2014 through 2017, the fa

By David Bau, Extension Educator Wet cool springs can leave many farmers cramming to get their crops planted. Many are unable to get all the crops planted on time and they continue planting even after final planting dates lowering their level of insurance coverage. Many fields are not planted at all and many acres applied to prevented planting acres. Some use tillage to control weeds, some use tillage and chemicals to control weeds, others just use chemical control while many others planted cover crops. All of these weed control systems have costs associated with them. The majority of farmers carry crop insurance that will provide income for these prevented planted acres. For example, in 2019 if a farmer had 75% coverage on 190 bushels APH, the insurance payment would be $313.50 at 80% $334.40 and at 85% $355.30 acre. If a farmer had applied fertilizer at $120 per acre and rent @ $186 and $40 for weed control this totals $346 which mean a loss at 75 and 80 coverage levels, but a