Organic Dairy News, March 2026

By Ed Maltby, NODPA Executive Director

Good news, Horizon has made an intelligent decision that will benefit producers and the Maple Hill brand. Because of a shortage of supply, they will not penalize Maple Hill producers for increased volumes of milk during the spring flush and summer grazing season. Christina Reginelli (Director of Producer Relations) and Troy Thomas, (Head of Milk sourcing, Horizon) informed Maple Hill producers on 2/2/2026, that “Horizon is increasing the 'Over' price to match the base price of $45.36/cwt March through August 2026. In practical terms, this means:

All milk shipped in March, April, May, June, July, and August will be paid at $45.36/cwt.
The May/ June 'Under' amount will stay at $5. Ideally, we would not incentivize lower production this spring, but we are leaving the $5 Under because we know some of you have planned around this.
Quality/ Components, and all other pricing program details remain unchanged.”

Hopefully producers will be able to take full advantage of this with lush Spring pastures! Other buyers should take note that producers need this support right now, and follow Horizon’s lead, as the shortage of organic milk continues and especially after the tough weather in 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 in the northeast. For those that can produce more milk, they should be paid the full price without seasonal adjustments.

An apology to John Cleary and a correction. In the last NODPA News I mistakenly said that there was no CROPP field reps in New England. I mistakenly took John’s title of regional manager New England and his many years of service to indicate a more supervisory role. I was informed that all CROPP field staff have the title of regional manager and John is continuing to do the great work he is well known for to support CROPP members and New England’s organic dairy farm families.

Good news for those that signed up for Dairy Margin Coverage for 2026. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Ag Prices report, released Feb. 27, established January’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin of $7.81 per cwt. This margin triggers a $1.69 indemnity payment for operations enrolled in Tier I at the $9.50 per cwt coverage level, and a 19-cent indemnity payment under Tier II at the $8 per cwt coverage level. Analysts and USDA projections point to improvements in the All-Milk price for March and moving forward, with feed prices staying low, so no significant payouts are projected for the rest of 2026. But the conventional milk market remains volatile and general market trends are unpredictable.

Good news! Circana OmniMarket Total Store View data reported in Market Trends by Dairy Foods that among the top 10 sellers in the Refrigerated White Dairy Milk subcategory, Organic Valley was fifth with an excellent year. The top seller remains private label, whose dollar sales lifted by 1% YoY to $9.7 billion, but unit sales declined by 1% to 2.9 billion. Fourth in that subcategory was Horizon Organic Dairy LLC with a 4.5% increase in dollar sales but a slight drop in unit sales to 103,542,194. In contrast Organic Valley brand was fifth with dollar sales increase of 20% and unit sales increase of 14.4% to 51,030,440.

Unrelated, is the unconfirmed but credible rumors that CROPP is purchasing 4-5 tankers of organic milk a day from Texas. Request for comments from CROPP were answered by Cheree Tauschek, Executive Vice President for Membership: "CROPP Cooperative does purchase a small percentage of external milk as a short-term strategic lever to fill any of our unmet customer and consumer demand. This strategy also allows us to continue to support our existing membership, and procure new members for the Cooperative through conversion of conventional farms and new farm start-ups." She went on to say "I am thrilled that we recently filled the New England Field position as well. Darlene Brann joined us earlier this year and is actively onboarding and out meeting our members."

A new 2,000-cow organic dairy has opened in Texas and a 6,000-cow organic dairy in Idaho.

USDA

USDA is moving forward with its reorganization plan to move 2,600 of the 4,600 DC area-based USDA employees out of the area to save money. Under the plan, the staff will be moved to 5 lower-cost regional hubs around the country (Raleigh, NC; Kansas City, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Fort Collins, CO; and Salt Lake City, UT.). Secretary Rolllins, Deputy Secretary Vaden, and the head of General Services Administration announced the sale of the USDA South Building (where NOP staff are located) and the formal beginning of the reorganization process. Since September 2024, USDA has lost 27% of its workforce (24,000) and with it a lot of institutional knowledge and experience. There is no news on what will happen to NOP employees that are based in DC many NOP staff members have established lives and families in the DC area and will not be anxious to uproot themselves to start over in a new location. The NOP lost approximately one third of its employees in the last year and there is no news as to when and if they can rehire to fill important and necessary positions.

USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) has made slow progress on moving forward the 2025 and 2026 Organic Certification Cost Share Program (NOCCSP), despite money for the program being appropriated in 2025. Don’t hold your breath for any quick resolution.

As of March 1st, 2026, there is still no confirmation of an in-person National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Spring meeting and no appointment of 5 new members of the NOSB to replace those that termed out in January 2026.

The window for applying for assistance from the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm–Raised Fish Program (ELAP) for transport of emergency feed in 2025 has closed. You need to apply for 2025 losses by March 1 2026. Qualification for the program from a drought perspective is triggered when a county is rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as D2 (Severe Drought) for eight consecutive weeks or D3 (Extreme Drought) or higher, which could happen in 2026.

In 2025, all ME states qualified for the program; 13 of the 14 counties in VT qualified; 8 of the 62 counties in NY (all on the eastern border) and 23 of the 67 counties in PA qualified. Next time you are in an FSA office ask them about the program and if they monitor the counties that are eligible, as conventional dairy does not qualify but organic does because of the grazing requirements. FSA personnel may not be aware that organic certification requires milking cows to graze, which is a requirement of ELAP.

Certification

There are reports that new organic dairy entrants are having trouble finding certifiers. NOFA NY is now taking on new organic dairy clients. Global Organic Alliance (GOA), P.O. Box 530 3185 Township Road 179. Bellefontaine, OH , phone 937-593-1232 is taking on new organic dairies as well. You can also try Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) 150 E. Wilson Bridge Rd. Suite 230, Worthington, OH 43085 -tel (614) 262-2022. They all do the Grass-Fed certification through Organic Plus Trust (OPT) that is required by Maple Hill.

In a conversation with OPT Program Director, Lauren Tonti, she explained the different ways in which OPT certified producers can apply for a variance because of drought or lack of pasture. OPT does not necessarily follow the USDA Drought monitor but works closely with certifiers who use the NOP program requirements for a variance as their starting point for looking at the higher requirement of OPT. The request for a variance can come from a certifier on behalf of their producer clients and be a discussion between OPT and the certifier as to what criteria to use to grant a variance. The producer can also apply directly to OPT for a variance, which will be assessed on a one-by-one criteria. With a significant difference in Pay Price between Grass-Fed add-on certification and just the NOP certification, a variance for not meeting the grazing and forage consumption requirements causing a loss of OPT certification, can be the difference between survival and bankruptcy.

OPT’s Program Manual does outline how producers can appeal any decisions and you can contact Lauren Tonti, at ltonti@organicplustrust.com or (202) 969-8534 ext. 700. OPT does have a Steering Committee and an Advisory Committee. The OPT Steering Committee oversees the ongoing work on the OPT Grass-Fed Program and Standards. It consists of at least 3 and no more than 7 people with a goal of reviewing and approving modifications to the Standards and offering governance advice to program administration. The Advisory Committee support the standards development process through analyzing standards, making standards recommendations to the Steering Committee, and participating in meetings to discuss standards topics. Advisory Committee meetings are open to the public and chaired by the OPT Program Director.

Posted: to Industry News on Tue, Mar 3, 2026
Updated: Wed, Mar 11, 2026