A long row to hoe; a short time to get there

Dickinson Press (ND)

Apr. 28--COVID-19 and the government mandated reaction have affected nearly every aspect of the economy, heavily affecting small businesses across the region. Farmers and ranchers on the Western Edge have been especially hit as their entire industry took a heavy blow as demand dwindled, logistical chains faltered and assistance stumbled. Fortunately, help is on the way.

Recently, The United States Congress passed an amendment to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that enables agricultural businesses with 500 or fewer employees to participate in the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. The bill includes an additional $60 billion for the EIDL program. President Donald Trump recently signed the bill and the funds could be coming shortly.

"It just helps with the healing process for the most part," Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said. "They got debt to pay and at some point when they sell those animals they'll pay that debt but in the short term it just buys them just a little bit more time without burning up what little bit of operating money they have left."

Goehring mentioned that with the benefits of the signed amendments, farmers and ranchers could apply for loans, including the economic injury disaster loan program, in which farmers and ranchers could earn up to potentially $10,000 of grant money to help them and their families get through these difficult times. Currently, while the amendment has been approved and signed by President Trump, the website for the application has not been activated.

"We believe, I can't state this as a fact, but we believe that the money that came into SPA might be dealing with the previous that weren't filled so there were a lot of applications that were in there before that weren't funded that they may be trying to take care of those before they open up for new ones," Goehring said. "That's to the best of my ability, I believe that is what's happening, because it's just not open right now."

For farmers and ranchers, the timing of these loans and benefits could not come at a better time as the agricultural industry struggles to continue its normal production process with the country shut down due to the virus.

"The livestock producers were dramatically affected when they wanted to sell some of their call cows, or they had some of those late calves that they wanted to sell in the spring," Goehring said. "Then the market dropped and they held on to them waiting for the market to bounce and unfortunately the market kept going down in March and April only getting worse."

Goehring added, "For the most part, AG producers are just naturally social distancing, it's not like they interact with people anyway ... It's probably more disconcerting for most farmers and ranchers when they see fear gripping the community or some of the community and shutting things down, the economy is not moving the normal chain of product movement through normal channels the way it should ... it's difficult to do their work when everyone is hunkered down and everything is moving rather slowly, they're a bit bothered by that.

Fortunately, with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum slowly re-opening the state as of Friday, May 1, Goehring and the rest of the agricultural resources believe the drought for the agriculture market will begin to rise.

"I see stocks rising slowly," he said. "I have a feeling that they aren't going to go down as quickly by the time we get to the new crop unless we have a lot of export business going on."

For more information, log onto https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/economic-injury-disaster-loan-emergency-advance or call 701-328-4754.

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