Dairy Priorities Included In 2022 Funding Package

Apr 06, 2022

NMPF helped secure important financial support for numerous priorities in the final government spending bill for Fiscal Year 2022, which President Biden signed into law in March. Key dairy provisions include:

$6 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and $440 million for commodity assistance programs, including $332 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and $81 million for TEFAP administration. Additionally, the measure provides $3 million for the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives Projects authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill to create pilot programs to increase milk consumption among SNAP households. This represents an increase of $2 million over FY 2021.
$486 million for the ReConnect program, the USDA Rural Development program working to provide broadband service to eligible rural areas.
$25 million for the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives program, which provides direct technical assistance and grants to dairy businesses to further the development, production, marketing, and distribution of dairy products. This is an increase of $1 million over Fiscal Year 2021.
$10 million for the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, a USDA program aimed at connecting those working in agriculture to stress assistance and support programs.
$1 million for FDA to seek solutions on regulating ingredient claims on animal feed additives as foods, not drugs. NMPF led efforts in Congress to secure this important component of dairy’s sustainability efforts and policy agenda that will provide a jumping-off point for additional work.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.