ALBANY (AP) -- The New York Farm Bureau is asking the U.S. agriculture secretary to expand the federal Milk Income Loss Contract to help farmers through a catastrophic milk pricing downturn.

In a letter to USDA secretary Tom Vilsack, the Farm Bureau said an immediate infusion of funds is needed in the MILC program to help farmers. It said the program also needs to be expanded to help more medium and larger-sized dairies.

Currently, the program is paying farmers $1.22 per hundredweight.

On Monday, 22 members of the state's Congressional delegation signed on to a letter to Vilsack asking for MILC expansion.

Dairy farmers have been squeezed because feed and other costs have remained high even as milk prices dropped. The MILC program pays farmers when milk prices drop below about $17 per hundredweight.

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