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DAIRY ST R “All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 23, No. 4
Hanging on for his life
April 10, 2021
DeRosier survives 45 minutes in under-barn manure pit By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
OSCEOLA, Wis. – Troy DeRosier woke up the morning of Saturday, March 20, thinking about the nice weather and the farm work he hoped to accomplish that day. He went to bed that evening with a very different outlook and a renewed appreciation for the gift of life. Troy with his wife, Barbara, and their son, Jordan, a high school senior, operate Crystal Ball Dairy where they milk 200 cows and operate an on-farm processing plant near Osceola. The cows are housed in a freestall barn built two years ago after the DeRosiers suffered a barn re. The barn has slatted oors and is built above a 2-million-gallon manure pit. The pit is about 12 feet deep, and on that Saturday, Troy estimated the manure was about 9 feet deep. Troy said he was looking forward to weather that would allow them to begin the process of spring manure spreading. On Saturday afternoon, Troy started the tractor Turn to DEROSIER | Page 6
JASON SCHULTE FOR DAIRY STAR
Troy DeRosier (middle) pictured with his son, Jordan DeRosier, (leŌ) and employee Alex Williams, fell into the 2 million gallon manure pit underneath the freestall barn March 20 on his farm Crystal Ball Dairy Farm in Osceola, Wisconsin. DeRosier was parƟally submerged in 9 feet of manure for 45 minutes before being rescued by Jordan and Williams.
USDA program expands COVID-19 assistance Farmers to receive payments beginning in April By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Dairy farmers should anticipate additional assistance from the federal government because of market disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 24, the United States Department of Agriculture announced the initiative – USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers – that will provide more than $6 billion to farmers, ranchers and producers through existing and new programs. “This is timely,” Steve Frericks said. “With the assistance, farmers could utilize funds to meet business obligations and ultimately help their bottom line because of what COVID-19 has done.” Frericks is the county executive director for Stearns County’s USDA
Farm Service Agency. The pandemic assistance will come in four parts: invest $6 billion to expand help and assistance to more producers; add $500 million of new funding to existing programs; carry out formula payments under the developed Coronavirus Food Assistance Program; and reopen enrollment for CFAP 2 to improve access to underserved producers. At the time of this printing, details of the rst part of the assistance were unclear. The USDA has committed to providing dairy farmers with compensation through a dairy donation program, as well as for euthanized livestock, specialty crops and the cost of organic certication, among other means. “The biggest impact there is for dairy farmers is assistance through the dairy donation program,” Frericks said. In previous COVID-19 assistance packages, dairy farmers received direct payments on the pounds of milk produced in their herd. “Those were substantial,” Frericks said. “This is being handled differently. We’ll have to see what this program
does.” Additional assistance dairy farmers will receive will be in the form of the restructured CFAP payments. The formula for payment rates for beef cattle has been adjusted for CFAP 1 payments with the USDA increasing
“With the assistance, farmers could utilize funds to meet business obligations and ultimately help their bottom line because of what COVID-19 has done.” STEVE FRERICKS, USDA FARM SERVICE AGENCY
that rate based on on-farm inventory April 16, 2020, to May 14, 2020. The new rates include $7 per head for feeder cattle less than 600 pounds, $25.50 per head for feeder cattle 600 pounds or more, $63 per head for slaughtered fed
cattle, $14.75 per head for slaughtered mature cattle and $17.25 per head for all other cattle in inventory. The USDA has estimated payments will exceed $1.1 billion to more than 410,000 farmers under the mandated formula. Cattle producers already enrolled in CFAP 1 will receive these payments. “Producers don’t have to provide additional information or signatures,” Frericks said. “There is no need for an additional application as we can process the payments from previously approved CFAP 1 applications.” Under CFAP 2 revisions, farmers will receive $20 per acre for eligible crops identied as CFAP 2 at-rate or price-trigger crops. “With alfalfa now included, that’s a very large deal for Minnesota,” Frericks said. The payments are expected to provide over $4.5 billion to more than 560,000 farmers under the mandated formula, according to the USDA. “Under the provisions, most farmers will get payments around Turn to USDA | Page 5