The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reminding southeast Iowa dairy producers the deadline to enroll in the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program for calendar year 2021 is approaching Friday, December 11th. The program was opened by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to help producers manage economic risk brought on by milk price and feed cost disparities. In order to enroll, a producer must certify with the FSA that their operation is commercial marketing milk, pay the $100 limited fee unless otherwise designated and handle all paperwork. This program was created by the 2018 Farm Bill to offer reasonably priced protection to dairy farmers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed cost falls below a certain dollar amount. For producers enrolled for 2020, the fourth payment of the year was triggered in September at $9.40. Including that payment, producers across the country have received 11 monthly payments totaling more than $472 million since the program began in January of 2019.