House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson held a telephone townhall on Wednesday. In the call, Peterson said the USDA will make payments to farmers. “They’re going to do another payment that’s not going to be based on trade, but how much damage was done to your industry due to the coronavirus. There will be some money to farmers,” said Peterson. “Farmers will get paid by the USDA on either a per-acre or a per-animal basis. In the case of dairy, it will probably be so much per hundredweight. It should come out in the next week or two. There will be some direct help for farmers and it will not have to be paid back.” Peterson said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has about $34 billion to help, but he doesn’t want to spend all of the Commodity Credit Corporation funds. “The dairy industry has asked the USDA for $6 billion, the cattle industry asked for $6 billion, hogs asked for $2 billion, ethanol asked for $5 billion, chickens and turkeys will probably ask for $2 billion, the specialty crops asked for $6 billion and the corn and soybean guys had me run some numbers. They’re asking for $30 to $40 billion,” explained Peterson. “These are all worthwhile things, but I don’t know where the money is going to come from to do this.” Listen to the townhall discussion.
News Categories
Latest RRFN Podcasts
Subscribe to RRFN
Get a weekly digest from RRFN to stay up-to-date on all the latest news in agriculture.