USDA investing more than $45 million into farmers and agribusinesses

Oct 28, 2016

Funding will help businesses expand

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the USDA will be providing more than $45 million in grants to help American farmers and agribusinesses expand.

The grants are being administered through the Value-Added Producer Grant program, and about 325 projects will benefit from funding.

"Value-Added Producer Grants are one of USDA's most sought-after funding sources for veteran and beginning farmers, and rural-based businesses," Vilsack said in a release. "These grants provide a much-needed source of financing to help producers develop new product lines and increase their income, and keep that income in their communities.”

Funded projects include:

$250,000 for Moragra PJ Farms in Poplar Grove, Illinois, to help with the handling, verification, sales, marketing and other expenses for its non-GMO corn production business.
$75,000 for the Missouri Soybean Association to conduct a feasibility study and to develop a business plan for a farmer-owned and controlled small-medium size soybean crush and soybean oil refinery for non-GMO/high oleic soybeans.
$250,000 for Cato Corner Farm in Colchester, Connecticut, to expand a dairy and creamery by establishing new types of cheeses, and to increase production of existing cheeses.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.