WASHINGTON—Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the implementation of the new Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment (DELAP) program that will help struggling dairy producers stabilize their operations during these tough economic times. The 2010 Agricultural Appropriations Bill authorized $290 million for loss assistance payments to eligible dairy producers.
Milk prices declined substantially through early-to-mid-2009, with the national price for milk averaging $16.80 per hundredweight (cwt.) in the fourth quarter of 2008 and averaging $12.23 per cwt. in the first quarter of 2009, a 27-percent decline. On average, the price U.S. dairy producers received for milk marketed in the summer of 2009 was about half of what it cost them to produce milk.
Eligible producers will receive a one-time direct payment based on the amount of milk both produced and commercially marketed by their operation during the months of February through July 2009. Production information from these months will be used to estimate a full year's production for an operation to calculate the payments, using a 6-million pound per dairy operation limit.
