The Dairy Promotion Program or National Dairy Checkoff is a United States commodity checkoff program for dairy product promotion, research, and nutrition education as part of a comprehensive strategy to increase human consumption of milk and dairy products and to reduce dairy surpluses, established in 1983.
It provides primary funding for Dairy Management Inc. Dairy farmers fund this self-help program through a mandatory 15¢/cwt. ($3.31 per metric ton) assessment on all milk produced and marketed commercially in the 48 contiguous states. Dairy farmers can direct up to 10¢ of this assessment for contributions to qualified regional, state or local dairy product promotion, research or nutrition education programs; the other five cents goes to the national checkoff.