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Dairy Margin Coverage Program
The enrollment period for the 2023 Dairy Margin Program year closed on Jan. 31, 2023.
DMC continues to offer protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed price (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer.
Decision Tool
The DMC decision tool has been enhanced and was developed in partnership with representatives from the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin to help producers determine the level of coverage under a variety of conditions that will provide them with the strongest financial safety net.
Enrollment Reports
Updated DMC enrollment reports will be posted to this webpage at 2 PM eastern on the first Monday of each month. The first enrollment report for the 2023 program year is available on this webpage.
The 2018 Farm Bill authorized the new Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program, which is a voluntary risk management program for dairy producers. DMC replaces the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy).
About the Program
Program at a Glance
The program provides:
- Catastrophic coverage, at no cost to the producer, other than an annual $100 administrative fee that is waived in some cases; and
- Various levels of buy-up coverage.
- Dairy Margin Coverage Fact Sheet
- Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage Fact Sheet
Benefits
At a milk margin minus feed costs of $9.50 or less, DMC payments are possible depending on the level of coverage chosen by the dairy producer.
2023 DMC Program Year
Payments triggered in January with a margin rate of $7.94.
2022 DMC Program Year
Payments triggered in August and September.
2021 DMC Program Year
Payments triggered in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November.
2020 DMC Program Year
Payments triggered for March, April, May, September and December.
2019 DMC Program Year
Payments triggered in January, February, March, April, May, June and July
Who is Eligible?
To be eligible for DMC, a dairy operation must:
- Produce and commercially market milk from cows located in the United States; and
- Provide proof of milk production at the time of registration.
Dairy operations may consist of one or more dairy producers who are in the business of commercially producing and marketing milk as a single unit.
Dairy producers who are members of the dairy operation must share in the risk of producing milk and make contributions to the dairy operation that are at least commensurate with their share of the proceeds of the operation.
Dairy operations must be in compliance with highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions. For more information, visit fsa.usda.gov/compliance. Adjusted gross income provisions do not apply to DMC.
Producers may have more than one dairy operation, but they must be separate and distinct in order to have a separate contract.
How it Works
To participate in DMC, dairy producers:
- Select a coverage level ranging from $4.00 to $9.50 per cwt, in $0.50 increments
- Select a coverage percentage of the dairy operation’s production history ranging from 5 percent to 95 percent, in 5 percent increments
Producers have the choice to lock in coverage levels until 2023 and receive a 25 percent discount on their DMC premiums.
FSA and representatives from the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin have partnered on the development of a DMC decision support tool that helps producers determine the level of coverage under a variety of conditions that will provide them with the strongest financial safety net. It allows farmers to simplify their coverage level selection by combining operation data and other key variables to calculate coverage needs based on price projections Visit the tool.
How to Apply
For both DMC (for calendar year 2023) and Supplemental DMC, the enrollment periods opened Oct. 17. and closed Jan. 31, 2023.
Supplemental DMC coverage is applicable to calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023. Eligible dairy operations with less than 5 million pounds of established production history may enroll supplemental pounds.
For producers who enrolled in Supplemental DMC in 2022, the supplemental coverage will automatically be added to the 2023 DMC contract that previously established a supplemental production history.
Producers who did not enroll in Supplemental DMC in 2022 can do so now. Producers should complete their Supplemental DMC enrollment before enrolling in 2023 DMC.
Enrollment for the 2022 calendar year opened on Dec. 13, 2021 and closed March 25, 2022
More Information
Dairy Margin Coverage
This DMC decision tool can be used to help you look at and think about what your opportunities are.
Note on Sequestration: DMC indemnity payments will be reduced by a certain percentage (5.7 percent for 2022; 5.7 percent for 2021; 5.9 percent for 2020; 6.2 percent for 2019) due to a sequester order required by Congress and issued pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. FSA will reduce DMC indemnity payments by the applicable sequestration percentage before distribution to participating operations.
Enrollment, Production, and Payments Updates
For both DMC (for calendar year 2023) and Supplemental DMC, the enrollment period opened Oct. 17. and closed Dec. 9, 2022.
Review 2023 and previous program year reports
| 2023 Dairy Margin Coverage Weekly Reports | |
|---|---|
| 2023 Dairy Margin Coverage Weekly Report for February 6, 2022 (PDF, 110KB) | |
Prices
Read the details on how the prices below are used in the DMC calculation.
A change to use premium and supreme alfalfa hay will be used in the feed cost calculation for DMC
Show prices for the year:
Show Me
| Month | Corn ($/bu) | Premium Alfalfa Hay ($/ton) | Soybean Meal ($/ton) | All Milk ($/cwt) | Final Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) | Milk Margin Above Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6.64 | 328.00 | 482.40 | 23.10 | 15.16 | 7.94 |
| February | 6.80 | 324.00 | 500.53 | 21.60 | 15.41 | 6.19 |
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| Month | Corn ($/bu) | Premium Alfalfa Hay ($/ton) | Soybean Meal ($/ton) | All Milk ($/cwt) | Final Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) | Milk Margin Above Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 5.57 | 262.00 | 421.21 | 24.20 | 12.66 | 11.54 |
| February | 6.10 | 266.00 | 480.96 | 24.70 | 13.72 | 10.98 |
| March | 6.56 | 269.00 | 493.98 | 25.90 | 14.35 | 11.55 |
| April | 7.08 | 271.00 | 476.70 | 27.10 | 14.81 | 12.29 |
| May | 7.26 | 274.00 | 441.28 | 27.30 | 14.79 | 12.51 |
| June | 7.37 | 277.00 | 445.93 | 26.90 | 14.98 | 11.92 |
| July | 7.25 | 333.00 | 467.87 | 25.70 | 15.78 | 9.92 |
| August | 7.24 | 343.00 | 510.90 | 24.30 | 16.22 | 8.08 |
| September | 7.09 | 342.00 | 473.94 | 24.40 | 15.78 | 8.62 |
| October | 6.50 | 348.00 | 468.68 | 25.90 | 15.19 | 10.71 |
| November | 6.49 | 331.00 | 436.75 | 25.60 | 14.71 | 10.89 |
| December | 6.58 | 327.00 | 462.85 | 24.70 | 14.94 | 9.76 |
| Month | Corn ($/bu) | Premium Alfalfa Hay ($/ton) | Soybean Meal ($/ton) | All Milk ($/cwt) | Final Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) | Milk Margin Above Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4.24 | 206.00 | 439.24 | 17.50 | 10.60 | 6.90 |
| February | 4.75 | 211.00 | 427.28 | 17.10 | 11.13 | 5.97 |
| March | 4.89 | 210.00 | 410.02 | 17.40 | 11.14 | 6.26 |
| April | 5.31 | 211.00 | 413.36 | 18.40 | 11.63 | 6.77 |
| May | 5.91 | 226.00 | 421.03 | 19.20 | 12.53 | 6.67 |
| June | 6.00 | 230.00 | 378.18 | 18.40 | 12.37 | 6.03 |
| July | 6.12 | 232.00 | 365.23 | 17.90 | 12.43 | 5.47 |
| August | 6.32 | 238.00 | 358.21 | 17.70 | 12.67 | 5.03 |
| September | 5.45 | 244.00 | 343.55 | 18.40 | 11.71 | 6.69 |
| October | 5.02 | 247.00 | 325.43 | 19.70 | 11.16 | 8.54 |
| November | 5.27 | 246.00 | 358.73 | 20.80 | 11.66 | 9.14 |
| December | 5.47 | 253.00 | 399.53 | 21.80 | 12.27 | 9.53 |
| Month | Corn ($/bu) | Premium Alfalfa Hay ($/ton) | Soybean Meal ($/ton) | All Milk ($/cwt) | Final Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) | Milk Margin Above Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.79 | 210.00 | 300.11 | 19.60 | 9.15 | 10.45 |
| February | 3.78 | 210.00 | 295.28 | 18.90 | 9.10 | 9.80 |
| March | 3.68 | 205.00 | 312.38 | 18.00 | 9.05 | 8.95 |
| April | 3.29 | 209.00 | 295.39 | 14.40 | 8.56 | 5.84 |
| May | 3.20 | 211.00 | 288.56 | 13.60 | 8.44 | 5.16 |
| June | 3.16 | 201.00 | 288.66 | 18.10 | 8.27 | 9.83 |
| July | 3.21 | 192.00 | 291.25 | 20.50 | 8.21 | 12.29 |
| August | 3.12 | 192.00 | 290.18 | 18.80 | 8.11 | 10.69 |
| September | 3.41 | 192.00 | 319.99 | 17.90 | 8.64 | 9.26 |
| October | 3.61 | 194.00 | 367.11 | 20.20 | 9.23 | 10.97 |
| November | 3.79 | 200.00 | 387.83 | 21.30 | 9.66 | 11.64 |
| December | 3.97 | 203.00 | 396.68 | 18.50 | 9.96 | 8.54 |
| Month | Corn ($/bu) | Blended Alfalfa Hay ($/ton) | Soybean Meal ($/ton) | All Milk ($/cwt) | Final Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) | Milk Margin Above Feed Costs for DMC($/cwt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.56 | 201.00 | 314.92 | 16.60 | 8.89 | 7.71 |
| February | 3.60 | 202.50 | 306.83 | 16.80 | 8.89 | 7.91 |
| March | 3.61 | 198.50 | 306.38 | 17.50 | 8.84 | 8.66 |
| April | 3.52 | 209.00 | 304.26 | 17.70 | 8.88 | 8.82 |
| May | 3.63 | 213.00 | 297.52 | 18.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
| June | 3.98 | 205.00 | 324.75 | 18.10 | 9.47 | 8.63 |
| July | 4.16 | 196.00 | 310.77 | 18.70 | 9.43 | 9.27 |
| August | 3.93 | 193.50 | 296.42 | 18.90 | 9.05 | 9.85 |
| September | 3.80 | 192.50 | 295.57 | 19.30 | 8.89 | 10.41 |
| October | 3.84 | 192.00 | 309.48 | 19.90 | 9.02 | 10.88 |
| November | 3.68 | 191.00 | 303.13 | 21.00 | 8.79 | 12.21 |
| December | 3.71 | 187.50 | 299.59 | 20.70 | 8.75 | 11.95 |
*At a milk margin minus feed costs of $9.50 or less, payments are possible depending on the level of coverage chosen by the dairy producer.
Farm Service Agency
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
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