USDA Tightly Monitoring Canadian Dairy Policies

Dairy policy changes in Canada have had some earth shaking impacts in the U.S. and USDA Chief Economist Rob Johannson said it’s perking up their ears.

“Certainly we’ve been watching Canada and the issue with respect to their pricing of dairy and how that’s affected some of our producers in the Northeast as well as the Upper Midwest.”

The data and analysis that USDA gathers is going to Secretary Sonny Perdue who is helping advise President Trump on these new challenges.

Johannson said changes such as reclassification of some dairy products have threatened dairy producers.

“That’s something we’ve been providing the Secretary information on in terms of what milk product prices have been doing over time. How that relates to cost of production and how that relates to feed costs. That’s an important component of our Margin Protection Program for dairy.”

U.S. exports into Canada have decreased with the recent changes.