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April 24, 2020
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$19 billion in ag aid COVID-19 impact relief payments to farmers, ranchers By Jeannine Otto
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
WASHINGTON — U.S. grain and livestock farmers will be getting their checks in the mail in late May or early June as a major part of a plan to help farmers hard hit by the economic consequences of coronavirus mitigation efforts. The program includes $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers, including the grain, livestock and specialty crop sectors, and $3 billion in purchases of ag products, includ-
Details of relief payments
ing fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat. “When you think about the fact that half of our calories are consumed outside the home, that’s been a dramatic shift in our consumption patterns. The misalignment of production and supply has created some real challenges,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. Those challenges include oversupplies of some products, including milk, that had been destined for the food-service market. With restaurants, schools and large venues largely
closed a nd major events canceled, food-service demand for ag products has dropped off sharply. “As a result, farmers are seeing prices Perdue and their market supply chain affected by the virus like they never could have expected,” Perdue said. He said the first part of the
program, the $16 billion in direct payments, will go out in checks starting in May. The livestock industry will receive $5.1 billion for cattle, $2.9 billion for dairy and $1.6 billion for hogs. Row crop producers will receive $3.9 billion. Specialty crop producers will receive $2.1 billion and $500 million will go to producers of other crops. “This program is open to farmers and ranchers regardless of size or market outlet, if they suffered an eligible loss,” Perdue said. The second part of the pro-
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
PAYMENT BREAKDOWN The $16 billion in direct payments will be broken down: $9.6 billion for the livestock industry, including $5.1 billion for cattle, $2.9 billion for dairy and $1.6 billion for hogs; $3.9 billion for row crop producers; $2.1 billion for specialty crop producers; and $500 million for other crops. Hoeven said producers will receive a single payment. That payment will be determined using two calculations including price losses that occurred between Jan.1 and April 15, for which they will be compensated for 85% of price loss during that period, and expected losses from April 15 through the next two quarters, for which they will be compensated for 30% of their expected losses. The payment limit is $125,000 per commodity with an overall limit of $250,000 per individual or entity. Hoeven said qualified commodities must have experienced a 5% price decrease between January and April. See DETAILS, Page A2
CLASSIFIEDS SEE A11
Vol. 42 No. 30
CONTACT AGRINEWS: 800-426-9438
See AID, Page A2
Finding ‘a new normal’
PURDUE AG WEEK
By Jeannine Otto
BISMARCK, N.D. — Producers who want to receive direct payments will face payment and overall limits and will only be compensated for a portion of their losses. “We know the disruption of markets and demand is significant and these payments will only cover a portion of the impacts on farmers and ranchers,” said Sonny Perdue, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, as he announced the $19 billion Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, on April 17. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, released details on the direct payment program for farmers and ranchers. “We appreciate the president and USDA Secretary Perdue working to get this round of assistance out quickly, and we will continue our efforts to ensure that these resources are used to assist our producers as effectively as possible,” Hoeven said.
gram involves the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchasing, through local and regional distributors, such as SYSCO, $3 billion in meat, dairy and produce. That produce will be distributed to food banks and non-profit and faithbased charities. “If you don’t mind the pun, this is an out-of-the-box example of what we’re trying to do. It is new and different, we’ve never done this before,” Perdue said.
COVID-19 ‘salt in the wound’ for agriculture: Braun By Erica Quinlan
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
PURDUE UNIVERSITY PHOTO/ TOM CAMPBELL
Students interact with livestock at last year’s Purdue Ag Week. Due to COVID-19, the event was held online this year.
The show must go on University’s celebration of agriculture presented online By Ashley Langreck
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Even though Purdue University’s College of Agriculture couldn’t host its ninth annual Purdue Ag Week in its normal fashion due to restrictions and regulations put on face-to-face gatherings to help stop the spread of COVID-19, the event was still able to take place virtually. Student members of the Purdue Ag Week Task Force and College of Agriculture clubs came together to find a
way to transform the normal daily activities that take place during Purdue’s Ag Week a nd found a way to still make them hap - Dougherty pen through the help of technology and social media. Emily Dougherty, a junior at Purdue and the Purdue Ag Week Task Force media cochair, said that when it was
announced that all classes and events on Purdue’s campus would be canceled, she along with the rest of the Purdue Ag Week Task Force realized they had to decide whether they should postpone the week or hold it virtually. Dougherty said the task force decided to go ahead and hold the week virtually and find a way to still do the annual activities that occur during the week such as Milk Monday and Hammer Down Hunger in a different way. See SHOW, Page A5
Top takeaways from Purdue Ag Week By Erica Quinlan
dairy industry with free grilled cheese and milk on campus. This year Kylei Klein, a WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue Dairy Club and Ag Students celebrated the ag inWeek Task Force member, dustry in the first ever Purdue introduced a calf to the online Ag Week held online. audience. Each day featured a new “Bonnie is a 2-week-old topic to encourage agricultural Holstein cow,” she said. education via outlets such as “She drinks about a gallon Facebook and Instagram. of milk a day. Right now she Here is a highlight reel of weighs about 100 pounds. the week’s events: When she gets older, she’ll stand at 58 inches tall and MILK MONDAY weigh about 1,500 pounds, Any other year, Purdue eat 100 pounds of feed a day students would celebrate the and drink a bathtub full of AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
water. “In the milking parlor, when she gets bigger, she will produce over nine gallons of milk per day.” HAMMER DOWN HUNGER Instead of its annual service meal-packing event, the Ag Week Task Force encouraged viewers to donate to Lifeline Giving in an effort to combat food insecurity. Learn more at https://lifeline.org/projectministries. See TOP, Page A5
INSIDE
U.S. food supply system remains strong A3
Grain handling safety tips A4
Dairy farmers hard hit by pandemic A12
INDIANAPOLIS – U.S. Sen. Mike Braun discussed COVID19 and the needs of the agriculture industry during a virtual shop talk April 16. The online discussion was hosted by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Growers Association. “Agriculture has probably been hit as hard as any sector, simply because it was the only part of the economy structurally struggling with chronBraun ically low commodity prices, stubbornly high input prices and the China dynamic,” said Braun, R-Ind. “When it comes to some of the carnage I’m hearing from dairy farmers, and what’s recently happened with meat packing companies, it’s kind of salt in the wound.” Agriculture will still have its core demand, Braun said, unlike other parts of the economy, because people will always need to eat. However, disruptions in the restaurant chain are causing problems. “I think we’ll find our way through it,” Braun said. “We have many issues across a broad spectrum of agriculture — my main concern is how we not only get through coronavirus, but how we find a new normal that’s sustainable for agriculture.” Braun commended Hoosiers for following shelter at home and other guidelines put in place by Gov. Eric Holcomb. “I think the great national anxiety that we’ve all been enduring has a chance of lessening, even though we know there could be a resurgence in the fall,” Braun said. “We know that we don’t have it completely at bay until we have a vaccine.”
AgriTrucker A8
Jerry Welch A10
Alan Guebert A9
Lifestyle A7
Auction Calendar A7
Livestock A12
Business A10
Markets A10
Classifieds A11
Opinion A9
Farms For Sale A8
Weather A6