Many ideas have been circulating on how to help dairy farmers through the current COVID-19 crisis.

The latest came in the form of a letter sent by Russell Redding and Richard Ball — secretaries of agriculture in Pennsylvania and New York — to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

Here are some highlights:

Direct reimbursement. Provide direct reimbursement to dairy farmers through a reimbursement of $3 per cwt of milk produced during the next three months, which could equal $10,000 per month for the average dairy farm.

This amount was determined to closely mirror the recent price erosion in the Class III milk futures since the pandemic began.

Milk loss, block grant program. Activate a milk loss and block grant program similar to the 2019 Wildfires and Hurricanes Indemnity and Milk Loss (WHIP-ML) Programs to indemnify eligible dairy operations for milk that was dumped, removed without compensation or received a reduction in price from the commercial milk market due to COVID-19, and continue with this program through June.

Reopen enrollment. Reopen the enrollment period for the Dairy Margin Coverage program so that producers can sign up for coverage for the rest of 2020, with the option to sign up for three years with reduced enrollment costs that are included in the payment over the three-year period.

If additional congressional approval is necessary, USDA must work with Congress to further extend the dairy producer financial safety net support through DMC, allowing producers to retroactively sign up for 2020 DMC coverage with sign up required for the remainder of the farm bill.

Organic DMC program. Design a dairy organic margin coverage program specific to organic dairy producers. This program would obtain current organic milk prices and costs of organic feeds to ensure an adequate margin for producers in a manner similar to the Dairy Margin Coverage program.

Dairy purchases. Make substantial dairy purchases through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and other available funding sources by distributing such products to those in need immediately.

Northeast processor priority. Ensure Northeast state processors can receive priority for these purchases that would be distributed in their states, especially those states that quickly implemented aggressive social distancing and mitigation strategies to protect their citizens and prevent national spread.

Rapid distribution. Allow states the ability to distribute these products as quickly as possible to those in need, including waiving income verification in areas with community spread and risk of transmission to food bank employees and volunteers.

Flexible products, packaging. Allow a broad array of products and packaging, providing flexibility where possible to increase speed of purchasing and convenience for food banks.

Voucher system. Use a voucher system to enable food banks to distribute foods in a more cost-effective, efficient manner.

Emergency bids. Open up emergency bids to allow New York, Pennsylvania and other states hit hardest by COVID-19 to allow dual benefits of providing critical nutrition for the newly hungry and newly in need in our states and help balance the milk supply that has been disrupted by necessary COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as closing schools, restaurants and other food service establishments.

Milk donation funding. Increase funding to the Milk Donation Reimbursement Program. This would allow more dairy organizations that incur expenses related to fluid milk product donations to apply for and receive limited reimbursements to cover those expenses while reducing food waste and providing nutrition assistance to low-income individuals.

SNAP assistance. Provide flexibility within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to maximize the buying power of SNAP recipients.

Domestic processing support. Implement dairy processor initiatives to support domestic processing infrastructure.

In recognition of the importance of the U.S. dairy processing infrastructure, Pennsylvania and New York support initiatives of the National Milk Producers Federation and International Dairy Foods Association, including use of the recourse loan program to support working capital and the forgivable loan program to support processor operations.

Pennsylvania and New York also recommend that USDA release the request for proposals (RFP) for the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentive Program to make available the $1 million appropriated for FY 2020 to develop and test milk incentives in the marketplace.

Source: New York Department of Agriculture & Markets, and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which are solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.