MILWAUKEE — Gov. Jim Doyle said Wisconsin dairy farmers hurt by a collapse in milk prices should get help soon from the federal government.

Doyle met Monday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He said Vilsack assured him the U.S. Department of Agriculture was working to get Milk Income Loss Contract payments out quickly. The program pays dairy farmers when domestic milk prices fall below a certain level.

Milk and other commodity prices began collapsing last fall. Dairy farmers have been squeezed because feed and other costs have remained high even as milk prices dropped.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Farmers in most of Kentucky can apply for low-interest emergency loans from the U.S. Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency because of damage from the January ice storm.The agencies said Monday 92 Kentucky counties were declared disaster areas and are eligible for disaster assistance, while 20 other counties are designated as contiguous counties where eligible family farmers may qualify for FSA emergency loan assistance.

TOKYO — Toyota's financing unit is in talks with a Japanese government-backed bank on possible lending, the automaker said today, underlining the serious woes facing the car industry amid plunging global sales.Toyota said no details had been decided. Kyodo News and NHK TV reported earlier in the day, without identifying sources, Toyota's auto loan unit, Toyota Financial Services, had asked for a $2 billion government loan.A spokesman for Toyota Financial Services said the talks with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation were among the various ways being studied to gain funding. The lender does 70 percent of its business in the U.S., where sales have been plunging and credit tightening.The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which started helping cash-strapped Japanese businesses last year as the global financial crisis unfolded, said it does not comment on individual company matters. Some companies have been struggling for cash ahead of the fiscal year end of March 31.