As USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was set to testify on USDA's Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget this week, USDA announced aid for producers that it said will be issued over the next 60 days, mostly from the $1.9-trillion COVID aid plan approved in March and other aid efforts.
USDA said the latest round of aid will be dispatched over the next 60 days, "which will continue to be focused on filling gaps in previous rounds of assistance and helping beginning, socially disadvantaged, and small- and medium-size [farms] that need support most."
The funds include $200 million for small, family-owned timber harvesting and hauling businesses, $700 million for biofuels producers, support for dairy farmers and processors that includes $400 million for the coming Dairy Donation Program along with additional $580 million in supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage for small and medium farms and assistance for poultry and livestock producers left out of previous rounds of pandemic assistance, including contract growers of poultry. Plus the aid would include help for livestock and poultry producers forced to euthanize animals during the pandemic (March 1, 2020, through December 26, 2020).
But some of the efforts outlined in the announcement are for programs that have not yet been finalized or have not yet been completed on the regulatory front.