The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is now accepting applications for state flood assistance from farmers severely impacted by record rainfall and flooding in June.
Grants are available to eligible farmers in Aitkin, Carlton, Cass, Cook, Crow Wing, Dakota, Goodhue, Itasca, Kandiyohi, Lake, Meeker, Pine, Rice, Sibley, and St. Louis counties.
Gov. Mark Dayton and state legislators agreed to create the grant program as part of the package of disaster aid passed into law during the one-day special legislative session on Aug. 24. The program goal is to provide assistance to farmers recovering from the impacts of the severe storms.
Eligible losses may include, but are not limited to, feed and forage damages, damages to buildings or other agricultural structures, agricultural equipment losses, organic and specialty crop losses, and other related farm or ranch damages and expenditures. Expenses for clean-up and debris removal are also eligible.
The application form can be found on the MDA website at http://www.mda.state.mn.us/grants/disaster/floodgrant.aspx.
Applications must be postmarked by Oct. 24. The applications will be reviewed and audited by MDA staff, with funds expected to be delivered in January.
While this flood assistance may not cover all losses, it should help in the recovery and rebuilding process. Due to limited funds and uncertainty about the number of applications, MDA reported it cannot estimate the level of reimbursement for individual applicants. After all applications are received, MDA will calculate these amounts based on the number and size of qualified claims in order to determine final allocations.
Farmers will need to provide the following information along with their application:
■ List of feed inventory or harvested forage losses.
■ List of capital damages including fencing, agricultural structural, agricultural equipment, or other capital losses.
■ List of debris removal expenses, organic and specialty crop losses and other losses or flood related expenditures.
■ Attach photo-copied receipts or verified estimates.
For more information about the program, contact MDA’s Minnesota Farmer Assistance Network at 877-898-6326.
Comments (13)
Add commentYou mean federal subsidies
You mean federal subsidies and crop insurance isn't enough? They want more welfare?
larry, I agree with you in a few ways, but.......
remember the New Farm Bill has more money for Food Stamps than agriculture. That is Your Hero's at work!
Farmers
"Eligible losses may include, but are not limited to, feed and forage damages, damages to buildings or other agricultural structures, agricultural equipment losses, organic and specialty crop losses, and other related farm or ranch damages and expenditures. Expenses for clean-up and debris removal are also eligible."
Getting RELIEF for damaged crops that would have been sold to feed you is NOT welfare.
No bitching about the prices of food then!
Not one peep!
Nan ... that is what crop
Nan ... that is what crop insurance is for ... we are already paying them A LOT of money to plant crops in places that will never grow because the governement has removed all risk from farming.
Plow fenceline to fenceline shove in drain tile and all consequences be damned
I wonder how many know about the Conservation Reserve Program.
It is a government program that pays farmers NOT to plant, spending about $1.8 Billion a year, which includes approximately 30 million acres. Did you know that there are hundreds of $1 million, and up, farmers! And we wonder who are the real hoes?
Muehlbau
You know something about farm subsidies, right? Thought I heard you talk about that before.
As I see it CRP is a break
As I see it CRP is a break even type of transaction. The money spent by hunters (liscences, local lodgeing, dining, gas, ammo) is all taxed so heavily, especially ammo and gas, that it does benefit the taxpayers in the end.
However, I do see that this too could be reworked to be better for all.
I think CRP's goal was to
I think CRP's goal was to eliminate surplus and bring supply in line with demand to keep prices at optimum level (we could afford to buy the finished product, while it was worthwhile for farmer's to grow it). Too much supply of a crop drives the price down.
Unfortunately, with new technologies, farmers have been able to increase their bushel yield per acre on the tillable land and so are producing the same supply on less land. Meanwhile, they put some land in CRP and collect on that too.
It was a good idea, but instead of initiating a plan of acreage reduction, what they needed was a plan of bushel control.
With the drought this year causing a hay shortage down south, there has been notice that land in CRP is able to be mowed, baled and either sold or fed without penalty in some areas.
I don't think of disaster relief as welfare. If your house is demolished by a tornado, you might have home owner's insurance to rebuild it, but you would still be grateful for the Red Cross voucher for a hotel room and some clean clothes or a hot meal. And you'd surely appreciate the National Guard helping to clean up the mess. I'm just not sure that now, 3 months after the flood, to hand out money is really what people needed.
Nan Lee, tell me what other
Nan Lee, tell me what other business in the world has a guaranteed return?
FNB, not my hero's.
FNB, not my hero's.
motleylarry,
"Nan Lee, tell me what other business in the world has a guaranteed return?"
Election to a Congressional office.
Nolan stands to make over a million dollars for two years in office if he gets elected in November. A bunch of crybaby liberals will cut off their nose to spite their face.
FNB,How do you come up with
FNB,How do you come up with that number?
As it is for all other
As it is for all other federal employees, congressional retirement is funded through taxes and the participants' contributions. Members of Congress under FERS contribute 1.3 percent of their salary into the FERS retirement plan and pay 6.2 percent of their salary in Social Security taxes.
Members of Congress are not eligible for a pension until they reach the age of 50, but only if they've completed 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62. Please also note that Members of Congress have to serve at least 5 years to even receive a pension.
The amount of a congressperson's pension depends on the years of service and the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary. By law, the starting amount of a Member's retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary.
According to the Congressional Research Service, 413 retired Members of Congress were receiving federal pensions based fully or in part on their congressional service as of Oct. 1, 2006. Of this number, 290 had retired under CSRS and were receiving an average annual pension of $60,972. A total of 123 Members had retired with service under both CSRS and FERS or with service under FERS only. Their average annual pension was $35,952 in 2006.