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Value-add grants prioritized for veterans
U.S. military veterans are urged to apply for USDA value-added producer grants. Traci Bruckner, with the Center for Rural Affairs, says those folks have also been given top priority for the matching funds program, “There’s a priority for beginning farmers and ranchers as well as small and mid-sized farmers and ranchers but now the new Farm Bill made a change – and we were part of encouraging this change – where there’s also now a priority for (military) veteran farmers and ranchers.”
She tells Brownfield Ag News that past value-added grants have gone to producers for expanding grass fed beef markets, improving processing plants, and more, “In South Dakota, there was a farmer that did some high-value grains that are grown organically. In Nebraska, here, it helped a kid who grew pumpkins for a 4-H project and that kid decided he wanted to turn that into a business opportunity. So, he started processing the pumpkin and selling the pureed pumpkin for people for pies and such like that and he got a value-added grant to help him do that.”
The deadline for this round of value-added producer grants was extended to Tuesday, April 8th.
Interview with Traci Bruckner (7:00 mp3)
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