Published: June 14, 2007 08:38 am      

Madison gets big agriculture bucks

The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board approved more than $350,000 for Madison County at its May meeting.

Five out of the 66 projects approved by the board earned money for three Madison organizations from the project, including: Madison County Conservation District, Madison County Beef Cattle Association and Madison County Farm Bureau Federation.

The program is set up to assist producers in developing and expanding new agricultural products while finding new ways to utilize current agricultural commodities, according to the Commonwealth News Center press release.

As part of the program, Madison County was approved for $357,300 of the $4.44 million that was allotted.

The Kentucky General Assembly takes half of the money up front for early childhood development and the remaining half (the $4.44 million) goes toward agriculture development, said Brandon Sears, Madison County cooperative extension agent for agriculture and natural resources.

How much money and where it goes is based on the applications turned in by farmers and how the organizations judge the entries in relation to three criteria, Sears said.

Applications are judged on whether or not the farmer has raised tobacco in 2007, the past or if they have received a phase two payment check.

Tobacco buyout

“It’s the money a farmer gets on a yearly basis because of the tobacco buyout, basically to reset some of the economic loss since the tobacco buy out ... to offset some of the loss in production,” Sears said. “There’s still some grown in the county, but it’s not anywhere near where it used to be.”

The second criteria is how much of the farmer’s total annual income comes from farming and the third is if the farmer has ever received money from any of the grants in the past.

It is the goal of the board not to continuously fund the same organizations without branching out to assist others, Sears said.

Madison County will receive funding in five out of the 11 categories approved: foraging improvement, hay, straw and commodity storage, fencing improvement, cattle handling facilities and cattle genetic improvement.

Madison racked up the most money in the program for forage improvement and utilization. The county will be given $117,550 to improve pastures for grazing, reducing producer costs for feed and the quality of the feed.

Hay, straw and commodity storage pulled in $81,450 for Madison and $77,100 for the fencing improvement program.

Cattle-handling facilities, which assist in health practices in efficient production, management and marketing opportunities for beef, added $44,200 to the pot, while $37,000 was included for cattle genetic improvement.

“The goal of the whole program for the state, kind of the way I see it, is to help other farm operations diversify in the absence of tobacco,” Sears said. “For instance in Madison County, I think, in the early to mid-90s we were raising 12.8 million pounds roughly here in the county. This year, I think we’re projected to be down to 2.8 million pounds, so we’ve had a significant loss of on-farm income since tobacco has dwindled.”

Better managers

The money from the grant also helps farmers become better managers of their forage.

The board also approved $290,000 for the Kentucky Grape and Wine Council. The money will help fund Kentucky’s enologist, technical support and viticulturist positions for one year.

“The program has definitely helped a lot of the farmers here in the county since the inception in 2001. We’ve received this year about 400 applications from farmers for the six different grants and the county never receives enough money to fund each individual who applies,” Sears said, “but there is a scoring system that the organizations use to determine priority. We try to spread the money around as best as we can to help as many people, especially new applicants.”

The funds from the board have not been sent to the organizations, however they are expected to be released by the end of this month.

The farmers will receive their money after the legal agreements have been signed and returned from Frankfort and their reimbursement forms have been accepted by the extension office, Sears said.

Although the grants have helped farmers recover from the loss, Sears said it is not definite the program will stay afloat.

“It is not necessarily a program intended to go on forever. I think it was originally intended to go on for 10 years so it depends on availability of funds from the cigarette companies,” Sears said. “The amount of money we get every year is not the same. Typically it’s been less. The more profitable these domestic companies are the better chance the county has of getting more funding.”

Havanna Hagans can be reached at 623-1669 or news@richmondregister.com.