USDA has set in action a plan to distribute the highly anticipated $290M in emergency appropriations to the nation's dairy farmers by mid-December.   The program is officially called DELAP - Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment Program.   
 
Farm Service Agency began distributing instructions on Wednesday, November 18th,  to local FSA offices across the country in preparation for those payments. Funds will be distributed through county FSA offices, and the MILC program will be used as a basis for determing the amounts paid to an individual farm per the emergency DELAP program.  
 
Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) was the driving force behind this emergency appropriations action which was approved by both Houses of Congress earlier this fall.  He received support from both Representatives and Senators from across the country in passage of this legislation.
 
Full details of this first phase of the payment procedure can be found at this link:
 
http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_Notice/ld_617.pdf
 
County and State FSA offices were given until November 24 to get requested production information back to FSA national offices.
 
The paragraph below is taken directly from the four-page document, and should be taken as a word of caution.  It states that the payment formula and payment rate have not yet been determined, and further describes some of the steps yet to be taken before payments are issued to farmers.
 
"DELAP Program regulations have not cleared the Department. Therefore, program
provisions pertaining to eligibility, payment formula, payment rate, and processing are not
available. A forthcoming notice will provide further details and instructions on DELAP
Program implementation upon publication of the final rule in FR.   Program provisions in the regulation will become effective when the final rule is filed for public inspection at OFR. At this time PSD cannot estimate the expected clearance time for the regulation. However, PSD will continue to inform State and County Offices about all pertinent information related to the status and implementation of the DELAP Program."