Low-interest loans from the federal government are now available to ag producers in 60 Minnesota counties who have physical structure or livestock damage from this spring’s severe storms and/or flooding. Dan Mahoney with the U-S-D-A Farm Service Agency in Saint Paul says, “Producers can borrow up to 100 percent of the actual physical structure that had been damaged by those eligible loss causes, up to a maximum amount of 500 thousand dollars.”
Mahoney says a 60-day sign-up period is also open for the Emergency Conservation Program, where the federal government could pick up 75 percent or more of the cost to restore storm-damaged farmland, livestock fences, conservation structures, windbreaks and shelterbelts. There’s no decision yet from U-S-D-A whether compensation will be available for crop losses due to the cold and wet spring which was followed by severe storms.