Regional Implications of the Current Senate Farm Bill Dairy Provisions

Abstract

The majority staff of the House agriculture committee asked FAPRI to examine the regional differences that exist in the current dairy provisions of the Senate's farm bill package. This report will highlight three areas that need to be addressed when comparing the different regions and expected outcomes under the new dairy provisions. The first issue relates to the total amount of money that is included for each of the two direct payment programs. The second is how each of the programs will work under different market price outcomes. The last will examine the use of the 5-year moving average U.S. all milk price as the determinant for direct payment calculation for states outside of the Northeast region.