The US Department of Agriculture has announced a pair of programs, one offering short-term relief to beef processing locations and another to bolster domestic production of fertilizer.
The Strengthening Processing for US Ranchers, or SPUR program, is offering up to $500 million in payments to what USDA calls eligible entities. Payments are designed to help producers who have been facing increased acquisition costs for processing for several reasons, including the abnormally small domestic cattle herd.
To be eligible, entities must be processing businesses already under federal inspection or under inspection through the Talmadge-Aiken Cooperative Inspection Program and the Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program. Processing businesses also have to be US-owned and cannot be what the USDA calls “nationally dominant” or owned by a nationally dominant company in beef processing.
Separately, USDA is launching the Fertilizer Investment and Expansion for Long-Term Domestic Supply, or FIELDS program. This will set aside $500 million to foster construction or expansion of fertilizer production plants, with priority given to “shovel-ready, financially viable projects” for a range of fertilizers, including nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulfur.
USDA says FIELDS funding will support projects that are made in America, “independent and competitive,” farmer-driven and capable of demonstrating production increases among other goals.
The ongoing war with Iran is not specifically mentioned by the USDA in its information release, but FIELDS follows one of the extended impacts of the conflict: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and resulting difficulties in getting nitrogen and other fertilizers shipped from the Middle East to the United States.
*Click here for information about the SPUR program.
*Click here for information about the FIELDS program.
