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USDA creates Cotton Ginning program help

The USDA is helping cotton producers through a new Cotton Ginning cost-share program. The Farm Service Agency will provide about 300-Million for the program to help expand and maintain domestic marketing of cotton. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says it’ll provide an average of 60 percent more assistance per farm per producer than the 2014 program which provided cotton transition assistance. Cotton growers have been under economic pressure since 2011 because of low cotton prices and the oversupply worldwide. Sign-up takes place June 20th through August 5th at FSA offices. One-time payments of up to $40-thousand per grower will be based on 2015 reported cotton acres.

The cotton industry wants Vilsack to designate cottonseed as an oilseed so it’s eligible for commodity support in the 2014 farm bill. Vilsack says Congress has not given him the authority to do that. House Ag Committee Chairman Mike Conaway of Texas says the Ag Secretary does have that authority.