STATE AG NEWS — Are a Moore County farmer or producer who has been directly impacted by the pandemic? If so, local UT Extension County Director Larry Moorehead encourages you to apply for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2. Implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the program seeks to support agricultural producers who continue to face market disruptions and additional costs associated with COVID-19.
CFAP 2 follows the first round of CFAP, which had an application period of May 26 through September 11. USDA’s Farm Service Agency will accept CFAP 2 applications from September 21 through December 11, 2020.
CFAP 2 payments will be made for three categories of commodities: price trigger commodities, flat-rate crops, and sales commodities.
Price trigger commodities are major commodities that meet a minimum five-percent price decline over a specified period of time. Price trigger commodities eligible for CFAP 2 include broilers, eggs, dairy, and livestock such as beef cattle, hogs, pigs, lambs, and sheep. Breeding stock are not eligible for CFPA2.
“This will pay on your cattle inventory between April 16 and August 31,” County Director Moorehead explained. “This deal does not include your cows, just your marketable calves or heifers that have not calved.”
Moorehead explains that once a heifer produces a calf, she’s considered a cow and is no longer eligible under the federal guidelines.
Crops such as barley, corn, sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers, upland cotton, and all classes of wheat are eligible as price trigger commodities.
Flat-rate crops are also eligible. These either do not meet the five-percent price decline trigger or do not have data available to calculate a price change and include alfalfa, amaranth grain, buckwheat, canola, Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton, crambe (colewort), einkorn, emmer, flax, guar, hemp, indigo, industrial rice, kenaf, khorasan, millet, mustard, oats, peanuts, quinoa, rapeseed, rice, sweet rice, wild rice, rye, safflower, sesame, speltz, sugar beets, sugarcane, teff, and triticale.
Sales commodities eligible for CFAP 2 include specialty crops, aquaculture, nursery crops and floriculture, and other commodities not included in the price trigger and flat-rate payment categories. These include ornamental fish, goat’s milk, Christmas trees, cut flowers, honey, tobacco, wool and other items. For a complete list, click here.
Commodities such as hay, grazing crops, equine, breeding stock, pets, and animals raised for game purposes are not eligible.
USDA will accept application through December 11, 2020 and you may view the application by clicking here.
Forms are also located at the local UT Extension office located inside the Moore County Building at 241 Main Street, Suite 214. You may also contact Director Moorehead at 931-759-7163 or 931-580-6073 for more information or with questions. •
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