Dairy farmer assistance discussed at meeting

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Agriculture leaders on Thursday told dairy farmers and cattle raisers they need to document their losses from winter storm Goliath if they hope to gain assistance through U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. And it’s too early to tell what kind of assistance, if any, might be available.

All that’s known for sure, said New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte, is “This is going to be a long-term recovery.”

Officials gathered Thursday at the Clovis Civic Center to share information related to devastating losses suffered in the Christmas weekend blizzard that some have estimated killed 20,000 dairy cattle in eastern New Mexico and dramatically slowed milk production.

Witte encouraged the farmers and ranchers by telling them officials are asking for federal assistance that could come with designating New Mexico counties as disaster areas. Such a designation requires a 30 percent economic or production loss within a county.

Witte said the 2014 Farm Bill does not cover such a heavy loss from disasters like Goliath as much as it should, which he is working to remedy.

“We’re not going to rest until we’ve turned over every rock and every possibility,” Witte said. “We’re not going to rest until we at least get kicked out of (Washington) D.C.”

However, Emaleta Mooney, an ag program specialist for the Farm Service Agency, said the only thing a "secretarial disaster designation" enables is emergency loans, "which assist farmers who have suffered physical or production losses in areas declared by the president as disaster areas or designated by the secretary of agriculture as disaster or quarantine areas."

For production loss loans, applicants must demonstrate a 30-percent loss in a single farming enterprise, said Mooney.

Witte and others said appeals should be made to state lawmakers in addition to efforts at the federal level.

Documentation will be key to potential assistance, said Molly Manzanares, U.S. Department of Agriculture state executive director.

“We need figures from you folks to report what’s really going on, and, I’ll be honest, we haven’t had a lot of reports,” Manzanares said.

Mooney said industry officials have to report losses no later than Feb. 1 but have an additional 30 days to provide proof of those losses.

The state will consider late submissions if producers do not uncover losses until later.

There are several ways to prove losses, said Mooney, but the two best ways are providing veterinarian records proving the lost cows were in good health at the time of their death and third-party certification in which someone other than the livestock owner signs paperwork saying they were also witness to the dead animals.

She said those who make over $900,000 adjusted gross income in a year will not qualify for assistance.

Witte said after the conference that he had not seen numbers for losses, but he has been told only about one third of the state’s dairies have reported losses so far.

Witte said he believes the reason for lack of reporting is due to area ranchers and dairy owners still “digging out” from the storm that left drifts taller than barns.