OSU Dairy Economist’s Research Featured In Farm Bill Webinar

By Nicole Pierron Rasul

Research from a dairy economist with Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences will be featured in a March 26 webinar offering dairy producers training on how the dairy title in the new Farm Bill will impact their agricultural businesses.

The 8-9 a.m. webinar, “Introduction and Strategic Implementation of the Dairy Producer Margin Protection Program,” will be presented by John Newton, a doctoral graduate of the college’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, who along with Cameron Thraen, a dairy economist in the department, authored a policy brief on the dairy safety net alternative.

Thraen also holds appointments with Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. OSU Extension and OARDC are the statewide outreach and research arms, respectively, of the college.

The farm bill dairy title authorizes the Dairy Producer Margin Protection Program, a new national voluntary safety net program. Information presented during the webinar will reflect, in part, the output of the research program on risk and dairy policy directed by Thraen and Newton, who is now an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The webinar is offered through Farmdoc Daily, an agriculture website by UIUC.

Registration is free, but registration in advance is required. For more information or to register, go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4274606896111336449.

The farm bill includes a new dairy producer income-over-feed-cost margin protection program and represents the most comprehensive reform to the U.S. federal dairy farm safety net seen in decades, according to the webinar organizers.

The webinar will introduce provisions of the new dairy margin protection program and then will demonstrate that by adjusting margin program choices each year, dairy producers may maximize the benefits of coverage and protect against severe downturns in milk prices, rising livestock feed prices or a combination of both.

Thraen studies agricultural policy and risk analysis for the dairy industry, as well as dairy futures and options contract trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is co-director of the National Program for Integrated Dairy Risk Management Education and Research, a national program to develop educational materials and computer software for the dairy industry.

Source:ag.purdue.edu