DANVILLE, Vt. — Small dairy farmers in Wisconsin and the northeast United States say a tough year has been made worse by Congress’ failure to pass a new farm bill.

While many programs have continued even though the farm bill expired Sept. 30, a program that pays dairy farmers when milk prices plummet has ended.

Many dairy farms already were struggling with low milk prices and high feed costs as the worst drought in decades dried up grazing land and pushed up the price of hay.

In Vermont, which saw more closings this year, the end of the milk income loss contract, or MILC, program, which paid dairy farmers when prices fell below a certain level, has created another wave of panic.

“The last couple of months, that’s what’s been keeping us going,” said Myles Goodrich, who runs Molly Brook Farm in West Danville.

Hay and grain prices skyrocketed at the same time as demand for feed increased, all at the same time the drought cut into production.

Now is the time when producers need the MILC payment to allow them to get through this very difficult time, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

“Of all the producers that have been negatively impacted by the drought, the dairy producers are probably in the most difficult situation at this point in time,” he said.

Goodrich’s last MILC check for about $2,300 came in just as the farm received another 16-ton shipment of grain. The farm has been spending about $4,000 more on feed each month — $16,000 compared with about $12,000 last year — for 120 milking cows and other heifers and bulls.

He figures he’ll have to borrow to stay afloat, and Goodrich’s mother, Sally, 84, said they’re still paying off debts from when milk prices fell in 2009.

MILC paid $346 million to dairy farmers from October 2011 to September of this year. Of that, $75 million went to farmers in Wisconsin, $34 million to New York, $30 million to Pennsylvania and $9 million to farmers in Vermont.

While all dairy farms are eligible for the aid, the program includes a cap on the amount produced, so farms with more than 150 cows maxed out earlier in the year. Smaller farms, such as those more often seen in Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, still were getting monthly payments when the program ended.

Each five-year farm bill includes money for a host of agricultural programs ranging from crop insurance to soil conservation, but the largest chunk of money, roughly 80 percent, is for food stamps.

That has been a sticking point in passing a bill. Republican leaders in the House have wanted to avoid a fight with Democrats, who oppose cuts to food stamps. Some Republicans want bigger cuts than have been proposed. But Vilsack believes the farm bill was stalled to avoid a debate about the depth of cuts to farm programs that the House leadership is envisioning.

“The risk is that nothing happens and then we end up going back to 1949 ag law, which would substantially impact the market,” he said.

A version of the farm bill passed by the Senate in June and a similar one approved by the House Agriculture Committee in July would replace MILC with a program that aims to stabilize milk prices by controlling some of the supply. It also would allow farmers to buy insurance that pays out when the gap between the wholesale price of milk and their expenses gets too narrow.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said it was “outrageous” that a bill wasn’t passed in time to help farmers. He voted for the House version in committee.

Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., who serves on the House Agriculture Committee with Welch, said the Republican leadership felt there wasn’t enough time to pass a bill of this complexity before the recess.