Dear Neighbor,
The deadline for farmers to apply for drought aid with the state of Minnesota recently passed, with a large number of livestock and specialty crop producers requesting grants up to $7,500 for expenses incurred because of last summer’s hot and dry weather.
The number of applications reportedly could reach around 3,000 when the Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture has a full tabulation. At last report, the average grant request was about $6,600. It looks like the amount of the individual grants will need to be pro-rated as the total funding available for the program is $8.1 million.
It appears the program was under-funded as the total amount of grant requests could be close to $20 million. The grants, when finally received by farmers, will be less than one-half the amount they requested.
There are growing concerns over dry conditions in the forecast once again, so we will see what Mother Nature has in store.
Later this week, we will reach 60 days removed from the legislative session. At that point, email updates such as this are prohibited until after the November election. In the meantime, I will continue doing my best to represent the people of District 12B and you always are welcome to reach out to me directly to share thoughts or to let me know if there is something I can do to help.
Until next time, I hope you are having a good summer and let’s pray for some rain.
Sincerely,
Paul