Esty, Murphy, Blumenthal, Courtney Applaud USDA Steps to Help Connecticut's Dairy Farmers, Call for Further Action

WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), U.S. Representative Joe Courtney (CT-2), and U.S. Representative Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) released the following statement on Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that they will gather in-depth information on production practices, costs, and financial well-being of American farm families for the final phase of the 2016 Agricultural Resource Management Survey. The results of the survey will help USDA and other policymakers analyze the Dairy Margin Protection Program, which has not provided adequate support to Connecticut’s dairy farmers.
 
“Dairy farmers in Connecticut have been getting the short-end of the stick for too long,” said Murphy, Blumenthal, Courtney, and Esty. “They’ve been hit hard by falling milk prices and the Dairy Margin Protection Program has not provided the safety net Connecticut dairy farms were promised. Collecting data is an important part of fixing the problem, but it’s not close to doing enough unless the protections are improved and the markets are stabilized. We won’t stop fighting until Connecticut’s dairy farmers get the real, tangible support they need.”
 
Farm milk prices have dropped almost 40% in the last few years, and Connecticut dairy farmers are struggling to bring in the revenues they need to stay afloat. Murphy, Blumenthal, and Courtney have been outspoken in urging USDA to provide emergency assistance to dairy farmers and to take greater action to support Connecticut’s dairy producers. Earlier this year, Murphy, Blumenthal, Courtney, and Esty requested that the White House Office of Management and Budget assist dairy farmers struggling with decreased milk prices.

Courtney introduced bipartisan legislation with Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) this year to bring fairness to the federal system used to determine the price dairy farmers are paid for their milk called the Dairy Margin Insurance Location Calculation (Dairy MILC) Act of 2016. The bill would amend the Farm Bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture to use data from each state to calculate average feed cost and actual dairy production margins. Murphy and Blumenthal also urged appropriators to fund a survey on the average feed costs on dairy farms by state to help gather data to improve the Dairy Margin Protection Program in the upcoming Farm Bill.

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