A bill passes last week in the senate offering $350 million in emergency funding for the agriculture industry. This comes form $121 billion spending bill set for the 2010 budget year, and of this money $290 million will go as direct payments to farmers.
Aside from payments to farmers, $60 million of this will be used by the government to buy cheese and other dairy products that will be donated to nutrition programs and food banks.
Some struggling farmers are breathing a sigh of relief. Bonnie Ayers, operator at Land of Living Farm, told an Ohio newspaper, “When you take into account the costs associated with the animal’s health issues, the cost of feed, farm employment, and add to that a struggling economy, it’s become too difficult for farmers to survive.” She added that the average farmer with 100 cows is losing up to $10,000 a month.
In the past year, milk prices dropped below $10 per hundredweight, or 100 pounds, a standard measure used on dairy farms.
There is no word on how much each farmers will receive.
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