Seniors! CELEBRATING OUR
See pages 12 & 13 of the Second Section for our High School Senior Feature!
DAIRY ST R
Volume 22, No. 5
Federal aid coming for farmers
“All dairy, all the time”™
April 25, 2020
Processing plants make staff health, safety top priority
Dairy producers will Food production should not receive one-time direct payments from be a concern in pandemic By Jennifer Coyne $2.9 billion allocation jenn@dairystar.com By Krista Kuzma
krista.k@dairystar.com
On April 17, the United States Department of Agriculture announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, a $19 billion program to provide immediate relief to farmers and keep the supply chain moving. The program has two major goals – provide direct support to farmers and ranchers through $16 million in direct producer payments; and purchase and distribute $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy and meat to move more product from food service entities that are closed to people in need. “The USDA will implement this program as quickly, effectively and efciently as we can to provide as direct quick immediate nancial relief to our farmers and ranchers, but also allow the purchase and distribution of our agricultural surplus to help our fellow Americans in need,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said. According to a press release from Sen. John Hoeven, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, $9.6 billion of the direct payments will be for the livestock industry: $5.1 billion for cattle, $2.9 billion for dairy and $1.6 billion for hogs. Crop producers will receive $3.9 billion, specialty crop producers will be paid $2.1 billion and $500 million will be paid for other crops. Producers could receive up to $125,000 within each commodity with a cap of $250,000 per individual or entity. Turn to FUNDING | Page 6
LITCHFIELD, Minn. – Dairy manufacturing is a renowned leader in sanitation and safe food processing. Yet, as other food industries have shown, the threat of a compromised workforce is ever present during the novel coronavirus pandemic. “Our No. 1 priority is the safety and health of our employees, our team so that member owners can be sure we’re a viable and reliable source to get their product out to customers,” said Bob Huffman, CEO at First District Association in Litcheld. During these unprecedented times, the processing plant has continued operations as usual with a heightened level of awareness for worker health, sanitized communal areas, and heeding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations. To reduce the risk of exposure, the cooperative initiated an internal crisis management plan and assembled their team with the overarching goal to maintain employees’ welfare and those who DAIRY STAR FILE PHOTO are afliated with the processing plant. While all plant workers wear personal First District Associa�on’s CEO, Bob Huffman, stands outside the coopera�ve’s facili�es in Litcheld, Minnesota. Dairy processing plants have taken addi�onal Turn to PLANTS | Page 7 precau�ons to protect their workers from contrac�ng or spreading COVID-19.
Roos recovers from COVID-19
Wisconsin dairy farmer spends several days in isolation ghting the novel coronavirus By Andrea Borgerding andrea.b@dairystar.com
AMERY, Wis. – After a ve-day battle, Josh Roos said having COVID-19 is something he would not wish upon anyone. “I had a high fever and breathing was awful,” Roos said. “My chest burned.” Roos farms together with his father, Richard, on their seventh generation farm, Roos Farms near Amery. They milk 150 cows and run 700 acres of corn, alfalfa and rye. Roos’ illness came on slowly at rst, but within hours his symptoms worsened signicantly. The morning of March 26, Roos began feeling a sore throat and coughing. Not knowing what he was getting sick with, he made sure to wash his hands, not touch his face and kept a distance from others. By 5 p.m., he began running a fever of 99 degrees. Roos rested when his fever started, but by 8 p.m. that same night, his fever shot to 103. Roos visited his doctor later that night.
“The doctor ordered my family out of the house before I got back home,” Roos said. “He did not test me for COVID-19 but said to consider it positive.” Roos and his wife, Cassie, have two sons, Levi, 4, and Everett, 8 months. Cassie took their children to Roos’ parent’s house across the road. Family members and an employee picked up the extra chores while Roos was ill. His usual replacement helper did not come to the farm to avoid contamination. “They denitely took a few extras under their wing for me,” Roos said of his family and employees. But Roos had his work cut out for him to overcome COVID-19. Alone, Roos battled a Josh Roos fever and difculty breathing. Dairy producer “I showered, but it hurt my breathing much more,” Roos said. “I was told to keep moving and do breathing exercises – in for ve seconds, hold breath, then blow out slowly.” Roos practiced the breathing exercises along with the doctor’s orders to keep moving around to avoid the onset of pneumonia. Turn to ROOS | Page 5