News
COVID relief package delivers for pork producers in several ways
Some of the $13 billion in agricultural assistance included in the coronavirus relief package will be used to compensate livestock producers who depopulated animals because of COVID-related processor disruptions.
Minnesota Pork Producers Association CEO David Preisler tells Brownfield it looks like compensation will be based on 80 percent of the animal’s value when they were euthanized.
“The one thing we still need to work out is that there were some state programs that also provided some help strictly for the depopulation and disposal expenses that took place with those animals, so we still need to kind of work out how some of that would work together with the federal side.”
He says payments will be administered through USDA and local FSA offices.
Preisler is also pleased to see “backfill” funding for border inspectors and changes to the Paycheck Protection Program that he says will make PPP work better for sole proprietors.
“It tends to be our more small and medium sized farms (that fit that category), so we really encourage folks to contact their lenders for more information on that because they’ll be the ones that will actually do the administration side of it.”
He says the COVID relief package also includes $20 million in funding for state diagnostic vet laboratories.
