Dairy Industry Frustrated Over Farm Bill Struggles

Farm Bill frustration was evident at the recent annual meeting of the National Milk Producers Federation in Phoenix.  “Farming is hard,” NMPF Chair and Missouri farmer Randy Mooney told members gathered for their annual conference that producing is even more difficult without an updated Farm Bill.

“We’ve got a farm bill that’s up, being talked about. We don’t know when that’s going to get done, but we need to know what our roadmap is. We need to know what the rules are so we can run our business. So, we need that to happen as soon as we can.” 

And while SNAP and reference prices have been divisive, Mooney says dairy programs have not.

"DMC and other programs in the Farm Bill, I don’t think it’s controversial," he said.  "So, if we ever get a farm bill, we’ll get what we want.”

Mooney added farming is challenging enough without the farm bill delay.

“You get hit with things like bird flu, that a year ago, we didn’t even know was a problem here at this meeting, didn’t know probably, ‘til early February, the end of March. And if you’ve been hit by one of these, either weather event or something really unexpected, my heart goes out to you. These things are difficult.”

They’re hard for farms and farm families.  National Milk Producers is also pursuing other challenges like federal milk pricing reform, dietary guidelines fair to milk, labor shortages, and export competition.

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