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 an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

(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 This act has been superseded by the 2 ...

(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 Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Payments is the name given by USDA to the dairy farmer counter-cyclical payments program, authorized by the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171, Sec. 1502, 7 U.S.C. 7982). Under the program, dairy farmers nationwide are ...

(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. The DPSP was cancelled though the

Agricultural Act of 2014 The Agricultural Act of 2014 (also known as the 2014 U.S. Farm Bill, formerly the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013) is an act of Congress that authorizes nutrition and agriculture programs in the United States for the y ...

References

External links

*{{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