In the United States, the Dairy Price Support Program is the federal government program that maintains a minimum farm price for milk used in the manufacture of dairy products. It is one of many agricultural support programs. Under the dairy program, the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

(USDA) indirectly assures a minimum price for milk by purchasing any cheddar cheese, nonfat dry milk, and butter offered to it by dairy processors at stated prices. These purchase prices are set high enough to enable dairy processors to pay farmers at least the support price for the milk they use in manufacturing these products. The

2002 farm bill The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, also known as the 2002 Farm Bill, includes ten titles, addressing a great variety of issues related to agriculture, ecology, energy, trade, and nutrition. This act has been superseded by the 2007 ...

(P.L. 107-171, Sec. 1501) mandated a support price of $9.90/ cwt, effective through December 31, 2007, when the program by law was scheduled to expire. The farm bill also established a Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program that makes direct payments to participating dairy farmers whenever the minimum monthly market price for farm milk used for fluid consumption in Boston falls below $16.94 per hundredweight ( cwt.). The MILC program has been reauthorized until September 30, 2012.

References

*{{CRS, article = Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition, url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110810044532/http://ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/05jun/97-905.pdf, author= Jasper Womach
USDA FSA MILC program website
Dairy farming in the United States Agricultural subsidies