Minnesota Dairy Farmers to Receive Financial Support through New Dairy Assistance, Investment, Relief Initiative.
The Minnesota legislature has passed Dairy Farming Bill HF 2861 on March 21st, which will establish a Dairy Assistance, Investment, Relief Initiative (DAIRI) program to support the state’s dairy farmers.
The initiative will provide grants to those who produced up to 25 million pounds of milk in 2022 and have enrolled in a federal dairy risk protection program.
Administered by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA), the DAIRI program will issue payments to participating dairy farmers based on the gallons of milk produced, up to a maximum of 5 million pounds per producer.
The payment rate per pound will be determined by the MDA, depending on the available funding.
The bill has appropriated an unspecified amount of one-time money from the general fund for this purpose.
In addition to establishing the DAIRI program, the bill will also extend the Agricultural Growth, Research, and Innovation Program (AGRI) indefinitely.
The MDA is directed to award DAIRI payments under the AGRI program, which is currently set to expire on June 30, 2025.
In 2019, the legislature allocated a total of $8 million to the MDA for DAIRI grants to farmers enrolled for five years of coverage under the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program, producing up to 16 million pounds of milk in 2018.
The United States Congress established the voluntary Dairy Margin Coverage Program as part of the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, also known.