Month: April 2020

Financial Help For Farmers in the Face of Covid-19

*This is an evolving situation and will be updated

PPP Loans: Paycheck Protection Loans are obtained through a lender (Yankee Farm Credit, VEDA, your bank, etc) that reimburses for payroll and other expenses spent over an 8 week period as long as employees are hired back or retained. You can use the money for employee salaries, paid sick or medical leave, insurance premiums, and mortgage, rent, and utility payments.

EIDL/EIDG: The latest act allows farmers to qualify for this program. The EIDL program is a loan program directly through SBA which can be used to cover a wide variety of expenses. It provides a grant (the EEIG) up to $10,000 ($1,000 per employee up to 10) whether the applicant takes the loan or not. Note, there has been a major backlog in applications and most Vermont businesses have not yet heard back from SBA after applying. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

SBA news release as of 5/4/20 SBA has re-opened portal for applications! If you were unable apply before you should be able to apply now.

PUA: Pandemic Unemployment Insurance is available for self-employed individuals including farmers. Self-employed farmers are eligible to apply for PUA if you have had some level of lost income. Many farmers may be eligible, and if so, you’d receive a minimum of $790 per week and a maximum of $1,113 per week.

USDA funds: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). This new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program will take several actions to assist farmers, ranchers, and consumers in response to the COVID-19 national emergency. See the press release. The plan will provide $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and $3 billion in food product purchases for distribution through the emergency food system. Details will still need to be rolled out but we expect dairy producers will receive $2.9 billion in direct payments, and $2.1 billion will go to specialty crop producers. The payments are based on milk production and calculated through a formula. They have not announced a specific timeline, but there is indications that sign-ups will be through FSA, and payments may be as early as late May. See this Hoard’s Dairyman article on some more thoughts.

New link – Webinar on CFAP, Thursday, May 14, 2020, at 1 p.m. ET.

Do you need help navigating all of this? UVM Extension Ag Business / Farm Viability can help.

Do you have questions for our office? Give us a call at 802-388-4969 and we will get back to you.

Resources in these challenging times

Our offices are currently closed but we are still here to help you! Please give us a call at 802-388-4969 and leave us a message. We will return it! You can also email us at champlain.crops@uvm.edu

Things are changing daily, and the best way to keep up with our office is through our email list and newsletter. If you don’t already get notifications, sign up now.

Many organizations are acting as clearinghouses for links so I will not repeat the work they have been doing, but instead refer you to them below.

Consider providing feedback for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) on how the Coronavirus crisis is affecting your operation! We’d also like to hear from you if there are things you think UVM Extension can be doing to help.

VAAFM Covid-19 resource page

USDA Covid-19 resource page

UVM Extension Resources:

Information about Small Business Administration Loans through the CARES act can be found on their webpage.

Farm First is your connection to free and confidential support for all farmers and their families.

Vermont Housing and Conservation Board also provides business advising services.

Soil and Manure Sampling Changes and Lab Operations

As of right now, the UVM Agricultural and Environmental Testing Lab is still receiving manure and soil samples directly and the lab in Maine that UVM works with us is still open. However, we will not be transporting samples from our office in Middlebury to the lab in Burlington. Additionally, please understand that the manager of the lab will not be in the office every day and there many be an additional delay in processing samples.  Call the lab at 802-656-3030 if you have questions.

Manure Samples: It’s nearing time for manure spreading… and also manure sampling! The best time to sample manure to get an accurate sample is right when you are about to spread it. 

  • We ask that you sample, freeze and hold on to manure sample(s) for a future date to be analyzed when we can transport it to the lab. Manure can be sent in the mail, but it’s more ideal to just hold on to it. If you need a timely result, call the lab, you may be able to send it directly to Maine.
  • Manure can be frozen for months, just make sure you leave enough space in the jar for expansion.
  • Empty manure jars will be left in the sample box at the entrance of our office, but any plastic quart jar could work –  do not use glass jars.
  • Our fact sheet on how to take a manure sample can be found here.
  • The form for manure sample analysis can be found here.

Soil Samples:

  • While we recommend soil sampling at the same time each year, given circumstances, if you can wait to sample it is advised to do so. If you do need an analysis, you can direct mail your soil sample(s).
  • There will be soil test kits left in the sample box at the entrance of our office, but any clean sandwich type plastic bag will work. You only need 1/2 to 1 cup of soil per sample – over doing it doesn’t help the lab and costs you money. Just make sure you take adequate sub-samples, mix your soil sample well, and send a representative mix. Soil probes will not be available until a future date.
  • The form and instructions for soil sample analysis can be found here.

If you have any questions about manure and soil sampling you can still give our office a call, and someone will get back to you – 802-388-4969.