Farmers can apply for federal ag assistance program

The federal government has announced aid for sugar producers as an application period opens for a previously announced $12 billion farm aid package.

Brad Thykeson, director of the North Dakota Farm Service Agency, was probably among the first to use the online application site for the Farmer Assistance Program announced in December.

Thykeson, who farms with two sons in Steele County, said he received a text message from Jared Hagert, North Dakota, the new deputy administrator for agricultural programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, encouraging him to test the application site that went live Monday morning.

The payment calculator relies on reports filed last summer on the number of acres a farmer planted to various crops.

“I was able to check a few boxes and consent and sign electronically,” Thykeson said. “So it’s really simple and very streamlined.”

Farmers can still apply through their local FSA office, but Thykeson said application forms will not be mailed to growers.

There is a review process and processing time varies depending on location, but the Farmer Bridge payment could be in the applicant’s checking account within a few days.

“We expect payments to be made relatively quickly,” Brandi Laframboise of the North Dakota FSA office said Monday.

The USDA announced in December per acre payment rate for covered crops, including

$30.88 for soybeans, $39.35 for wheat and $44.36 for corn.

The program provides $11 billion for more conventional crops and $1 billion for specialty crops ranging from almonds to watermelons.

The USDA announced Friday that payments for specialty crops would include 150 million dollars for sugar producers. Sugar beets are a key specialty crop in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota.

The agency also announced $89.1 million in disaster aid for sugar producers for drought-related losses in 2023-24.

“As producers face low or negative margins, these relief programs give the entire domestic sugar industry a chance to combat market disruptions, continued inflation, rising production costs and losses to foreign suppliers,” the Red River Sugarbeet Growers Association said in a statement.

An application period for specialty crop growers will come later, Thykeson said.

Farmers’ groups representing growers have been pushing for government help as farmers face low prices and high costs for inputs such as fertilizer.

Thykeson said farmers who have some livestock production, an area where North Dakota lags behind neighboring states, are more likely to be profitable in today’s agricultural economy.

“When it comes to agricultural production, no matter what crop you’re growing, it seems like it’s a tough time right now,” Thykeson said. “Either our prices are too low or our input costs are too high, and that’s just a fact. »

The USDA said in a new statement that the interim payments are intended in part to help farmers until farm policy changes included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last year can take effect later this year. These changes include higher reference prices, the prices that trigger aid programs for farmers.

These one-off bridging payments aim to help address market disruptions, high input costs, inflation and market losses due to unfair trading practices by other countries.

Brian Leier of Linton, president of the North Dakota Corn Growers Association, said groups like his have pushed for the payments but also advocated for other policy changes, such as increased use of ethanol made from corn.

“I’m kidding a little bit. I called them the Bridge to Nowhere,” he said of the interim payments made last month at the Northern Corn and Soybean Expo in West Fargo, given the situation. gloomy outlook for the agricultural economy.

At the same event, Justin Sherlock, president of the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association, said federal aid doesn’t solve business problems affecting farmers.

“We have to have markets,” Sherlock said. “We cannot continue to make payments to the government. »

Thykeson said his family plans to add canola to its usual plantings of corn, soybeans, wheat and some edible beans.

“I hope there will be a recovery in one of the markets and there will be a good harvest at a good price,” he said.

Contact Associate Editor Jeff Beach at jbeach@northdakotamonitor.com.

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