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Minnesota farmer says shutdown is impacting many facets of ag

A Minnesota farmer says the government shutdown is impacting many facets of agriculture.

Carolyn Olson of Cottonwood tells Brownfield she’s been talking to other Farm Bureau members about what’s top-of-mind at the national meeting in New Orleans.

“We’ve heard from dairy farmers who are concerned about signing up for the milk program, and their deadline is January 15th. With the shutdown, they were worried that they’d miss out on that payment.”

She says farmers are also concerned about getting into their FSA offices to certify acres.

“But I think most of the farmers right now (are) planning, but they’re also being patient because we’re optimistic the government will open in short order. That way we’ll be able to get in and utilize all of our farm programs that we need to during this time of the year.”

USDA has delayed the January 15^th deadline for signup in the Market Facilitation Program equal to the number of business days FSA offices were closed once the government shutdown ends.