Growing season has been a challenge

To the Editor:

This past spring we technically began the growing season in a drought. While there was some wetness around Memorial Day, we had a few good planting days in June. It didn’t take long for a few hints of the rainy weather pattern to come. No question, this summer’s growing season has been a challenge for our farmers. Some might even say the worst summer ever!

There is some assistance available through your local FSA office and other sources:

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) – offers payments to eligible producers for livestock death losses in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather.

Tree Assistance Program (TAP) – provides assistance to eligible orchardists and nursery tree growers for qualifying tree, shrub and vine losses due to natural disaster.

Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) – provides emergency relief for losses due to feed or water shortages, disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, which are not adequately addressed by other disaster programs. This program can cover the cost of additional feed due to loss of hay crop as well as the transportation of livestock to other fields for grazing.

Emergency Loan Program – available to producers with agriculture operations located in a county under a primary or contiguous Secretarial Disaster designation. These low interest loans help producers recover from production and physical losses. Currently, Emergency Loan funds are available to producers in all Maine Counties.

Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) – provides emergency funding for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate land severely damaged by natural disasters; includes fence loss.

Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) – can assist landowners and forest stewards with financial and technical assistance to restore damaged Non-Industrial Private Forestland.

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