WASHINGTON– The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency announces that Dairy Margin Coverage safety-net signup for 2021 coverage will begin Oct. 12 and will run through Dec. 11.

The program has already triggered payments for two months for producers who signed up for 2020 coverage.

“If we’ve learned anything in the past six months, it’s to expect the unexpected,” said Richard Fordyce, FSA administrator. “Nobody would have imagined the significant impact that current, unforeseen circumstances have had on an already fragile dairy market. It’s during unprecedented times like these that the importance of offering agricultural producers support through the delivery of Farm Bill safety-net programs such as DMC becomes indisputably apparent.”

As of June 15, FSA has issued more than $100 million in much-needed program benefits to dairy producers who purchased DMC coverage for 2020.

Authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, DMC is a voluntary risk management program that offers protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed price (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. Over 13,000 operations enrolled in the program for the 2020 calendar year.