NCBA thanks USDA for addressing CFAP concerns

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NCBA thanks USDA for addressing CFAP concerns

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says it is pleased that USDA is addressing cattle producer concerns in the next round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).

NCBA’s Ethan Lane says one of those was the April 15th cutoff date in CFAP1, which he says “left many producers out in the cold”.

“The original program, because of that Part1-Part2 split, did create some consternation and some problems for some of our producers that took pretty heavy economic blows in the market after April 15th, and yet couldn’t access those Part 1 payments,” Lane says. “It (CFAP2) certainly doesn’t move those producers up to the level of those Part 1 payments in the first round, but it goes a long way toward pushing more resources to those impacted producers.”

While CFAP2 addresses many of their concerns, Lane says some disparities remain.  He says they will continue to work with Congress on those issues.

“It’s going to be important to see how this CFAP 2.0 package plays out,” he says. “We kind of know where the hot spots are. We know stockers and feeders and some cow-calf producers were really kind of left short by that first package, obviously, as well as cattle feeders that sold cattle after April 15th and took some of the worst losses at the height of the crisis.

“So we’ll see how much help we get through this round and I think that will help in conversations with Capitol Hill.”

Brownfield’s Meghan Grebner contributed to this story.

AUDIO: Ethan Lane, interviewed by Meghan Grebner

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