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Producers urged to sign up before Thursday MFP deadline

Farmers have until Thursday to sign up for the USDA’s Market Facilitation Program, the program designed to help offset lost income from the various trade disputes. 

University of Wisconsin Ag Economist Paul Mitchell tells Brownfield signing up is a no-brainer. “You don’t even have to have some of the base acres, any of those other commodity programs. You just have to have produced the crop or the milk during the time period, and if you have, you can go in and sign up for these programs and get these payments.”

Mitchell says producers will still have time to verify their production after Thursday’s deadline, and the payments can help during these tough economic times. “Soybeans is a big one, $1.65 a bushel. That’s hard to pass up in these markets. Wheat has got 14-cents a bushel, for those that have wheat, but corn is only a penny a bushel but every little bit helps.”

Dairy producers can also qualify for 12-cents a hundredweight during certain production times.

Mitchell urges producers who haven’t signed up for MFP payments to immediately contact their FSA office or sign up online. This is the second round of MFP payments.

So far, the USDA says more than 864,000 producers have applied for MFP payments.