President Obama signed a bill in October that provides $290 million for dairy farmers across the United States, and $60 million will buy excess dairy supply to go to food banks and nutrition programs.
Although there is extra money, many wonder if it will help in the end.
On average, every time a farmer milks a cow he or she is losing money. According to the NDSU Extension Service, each farmers loses $1,000 per cow. The problem is that there is so much milk available on the market that there is too much competition. However, more importantly less people are buying milk.
This isn’t just happening in the dairy industry, it is happening across all fields of agriculture.
Farmers look forward to the payment, but they recognize it is not enough to make much of a difference.
“In a dairy like this it won`t even make up two to three weeks for our lost income so far,” North Dakota farmer, Mark Doll said. “It`s some help but it`s not going to get us back to where we need to be.”
Farmers are optimistic that in time the industry will pick back up.
There is no word on how much money each producer will receive, but the amount will be based on the size of the operation.
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