USDA offering farmers $16B in COVID-19 relief
As of Wednesday, only a handful of county farmers had applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's $16 billion Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Being just the first week applications could be submitted, more area farmers are expected to apply before the Aug. 28 deadline.
The USDA expects the Farm Service Agency office in Connoquenessing Township to receive hundreds of CFAP applications from farmers across Butler, Beaver and Allegheny counties, which are served by the local office.
“We're expecting 600 to 700 applications from all three counties,” said Luke Fritz, FSA District 1 director, who runs the local office.
Fritz said he doesn't know how the federal agency came up with its projection, but about two dozen county farmers have called to inquire about the program, and he believes more are busy gathering the information they need for the application and eligibility forms.
Statewide, FSA offices received 1,600 phone calls about the program, he said.
Thus far, six county farmers submitted applications.
“There is a lot of interest. Things are tough on the farm. I've worked a long time for the agency, and I've never seen it this bad. It's not just one sector of farming. It's all sectors,” Fritz said.
The family-run Thiele Dairy Farm in Cabot is planning to apply.
“We'll definitely apply for it. I would think most would just because of the current situation,” William Thiele said.
Some farmers consider government assistance programs as handouts and don't apply for them, but the pandemic could change their minds, Thiele said.
He hopes the program results in an end to having to dump milk due to lower demand.
“We've been dumping milk since the middle of April,” Thiele said.
He said milk processor Marburger Farm Dairy in Evans City has asked all farmers it works with to dump 15 percent of their milk.
“They try to spread out pain for all farmers,” Thiele said.
The Thieles don't waste the dumped milk. They use it as a substitute for the water they would normally mix with cow feed. He said milk production increased as a result.
The CFAP program is designed to provide direct payments to farmers as relief from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial assistance is available to agricultural commodity producers who suffered a price decline of at least 5 percent and face additional marketing costs as a result of lower demand, surplus production and shipping disruptions.
Farmers can receive payments from two possible sources.The first is $9.5 billion in appropriated funding in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stability (CARES) Act to compensate farmers for losses due to price declines that occurred between mid-January and mid-April 2020. The funding also provides support for specialty crops that were shipped from farms between the same time period, but spoiled due to a loss of marketing channels.The second source uses the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act to compensate producers for $6.5 billion in losses due to ongoing market disruptions.For dairy farmers, the payment is based on milk production for the first quarter of 2020 multiplied by a national price decline during the same quarter. The second part of the payment is based a national adjustment to each producer's production in the first quarter.Livestock eligible for CFAP include cattle, lambs, yearlings and hogs. The payment is based on the number of livestock sold between Jan. 15 and April 15, the payment rates per head, and livestock inventory between April 16 and May 14.Eligible nonspecialty crops include malting barley, canola, corn, upland cotton, millet, oats, soybeans, sorghum, sunflowers, durum wheat and hard red spring wheat. Wool is also eligible.Payment is based on 50 percent of 2019's total production or 2019's inventory as of Jan. 15, whichever is smaller, multiplied by the commodity's payment rates.Specialty crops include beans, broccoli, sweet corn, iceberg lettuce, spinach, squash, strawberries and tomatoes. For eligible specialty crops, the total payment is based on the volume of products sold between Jan. 15 and April 15, the volume of products shipped but unpaid, and the number of acres from which harvested and mature crops did not leave the farm or were destroyed.The maximum payment is $250,000 per person or entity for all commodities combined. To ensure funding availability, producers will receive 80 percent of their maximum payment upon approval. The remaining portion of the payment will be paid later as funds remain available.A list of eligible crops can be found on farmers.gov/cfap. Additional crops may be deemed eligible later.Fritz said farmers can use a payment calculator at farmers.gov/cfap to determine payments and decide if they want to apply.
