Milwaukee – Some dairy farmers are expressing frustration with Congressional failure to pass a farm bill, saying the uncertainty makes it hard to do business and some could go under without changes to the federal milk program.
Farmers also worried that if a current nine-month extension of the 2008 farm bill expires with no action, a 64-year-old law will kick in, sending milk prices spiraling. While that might provide short-term profits, they say, it’d hurt them in the long run because no one wants to buy milk at $6 a gallon.
The U.S. House voted down a farm bill June 20, about a week after the Senate approved a different version. It was the second year in a row that the House failed to pass the every-five-years bill that sets funding for agriculture and food programs. Last year, it didn’t even vote, prompting the passage in January of a slimmed-down extension of the 2008 law – largely to avoid milk prices sharply increasing.
The Agricultural Act of 1949 sets a much higher price for government purchases of cheese, butter and other dairy products than the United States has seen in decades.
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