Emergency direct payments to U.S. dairy operators will be delivered before the holidays. That’s the word from Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, “The actual cash is $290 Million and we anticipate getting that distributed, certainly before the Christmas holiday.”
It’s part of the $350 Million dairy relief package passed by Congress to help struggling producers. Sixty-million of that will be used to buy cheese for government food programs, starting next March. The remaining $290 Million is direct payment relief, “We may keep a little bit, a small amount in the neighborhood of $10 Million back to make sure that we haven’t forgotten somebody or that we’ve calculated things wrong, that kind of thing. But, the vast majority of it, 95% of it, is going to be out the door.”
The relief funds were approved as part of the 2010 Ag Appropriations bill signed into law in October.
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