Dairy Marketing Signals
By Brad Rach
Tom Crosby wrote about the Dairy Margin Coverage program in the last issue of this magazine.
He discussed how today’s alarmingly low feed prices are reverberating through the DMC program—a program many of our members rely on to get through tough times. It no longer functions as Congress intended.
Then Tom and Jim Hayes, our vice president, attended World Dairy Expo and personally reached out to members of the media to help them understand why the changes we’re advocating for in the DMC are so important.
The Farm Bill is long overdue for an update, but remains stalled by inaction. Will our efforts be effective? I don’t know. But I do know this: We’re throwing everything we’ve got at this critical issue that affects all of us in significant ways.
Updating the DMC is another example of how working together makes us stronger. Think about it. Any one of you could have written a compelling letter about how the DMC has been undermined by low feed prices. But that’s about as far as you could go on your own.
You wouldn’t have a professional staff to follow up when reporters call. And you wouldn’t have the influence that comes with representing one of the nation’s largest dairy co-ops when speaking to the media and members of Congress.
I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to get the DMC program back on track. Even more, I want to thank each of our members for making us strong enough to be effective.
