Grant Money for Cattle Producers

[LT]

Does anyone have a site or information on how to find or apply for grant money for a young cattle producer getting started?  We heard at a seminar that there was money out there but they did not give more information than that.  Thanks

 

[shortyjock89]

We tried for those almost a decade ago, did everything by the book, and haven't seen a dime of that supposed grant money.  I'm sure that they do award the money, but in our experience, it was a bureaucratic mess of red tape.

 

[Chris Bingham]

I havent heard of the grant, but I know here in Oklahoma you can get a youth loan. I have gotten 3 so far to purchase cattle and to use for operating costs. They are low interest rates with yearly payments. I got mine from our extension office, but farm credit also has them (i think).

 

[knabe]

We tried for those almost a decade ago, did everything by the book, and haven't seen a dime of that supposed grant money.  I'm sure that they do award the money, but in our experience, it was a bureaucratic mess of red tape.

what stands out as DIFFERENT in your application?  if you read literally hundreds of grants for money to start yet another young producer, what can you do that stresses something different?

in my book,(as someone who has applied for grants from the DOE and NIH and foreign governments) the following things do not stand out.

young
cattle producer
started
club calf
semen sales
PHA/TH free club calves

i'm not being negative, what i'm saying is that you need a rationalization to appeal to someone sitting at desk reading a bunch of applications that sound the same.  what are you going to do to "save the world."  remember, that the people reading these things are entrenched, and need to see something more than just helping start out yet another producer.  they want to see something different.  dare to be a daniel.  at my previous job, i literally would receive 250 applications for any open positions.  people with Ph. D.'s would apply for entry level work saying they just needed a start.  those applications are literally a waste of time to forward from admin.  their only utility is literally to be used for equal opportunity record keeping.  what one does is collect a bunch of applications that stress diversity and you still hire the best fit for the job.  the reason i rambled there at the end is to just give you an impression of what it's like on the receiving side.  their job is to promote something different, not "yet another young producer".  that's what banks and other sources are for.

 

[KCK]

I believe the Oklahoma Department of Ag gives out some grants and loans. Maybe try that lead in your own state. Also, contact your state cattlemen's association for some direction. They have all of those sort of things come across their desks. Keeping up on new legislature is a great way to know if the state has put any money forward for these type of deals.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[shortyjock89]

We tried for those almost a decade ago, did everything by the book, and haven't seen a dime of that supposed grant money.  I'm sure that they do award the money, but in our experience, it was a bureaucratic mess of red tape.

what stands out as DIFFERENT in your application?  if you read literally hundreds of grants for money to start yet another young producer, what can you do that stresses something different?

in my book,(as someone who has applied for grants from the DOE and NIH and foreign governments) the following things do not stand out.

young
cattle producer
started
club calf
semen sales
PHA/TH free club calves

i'm not being negative, what i'm saying is that you need a rationalization to appeal to someone sitting at desk reading a bunch of applications that sound the same.  what are you going to do to "save the world."  remember, that the people reading these things are entrenched, and need to see something more than just helping start out yet another producer.  they want to see something different.  dare to be a daniel.  at my previous job, i literally would receive 250 applications for any open positions.  people with Ph. D.'s would apply for entry level work saying they just needed a start.  those applications are literally a waste of time to forward from admin.  their only utility is literally to be used for equal opportunity record keeping.  what one does is collect a bunch of applications that stress diversity and you still hire the best fit for the job.  the reason i rambled there at the end is to just give you an impression of what it's like on the receiving side.  their job is to promote something different, not "yet another young producer".  that's what banks and other sources are for.

Knabe, good post.  I guess I forgot to add that we were approved and got letters saying we were accepted into the program that we applied to (it's been so long and I was like 9, so I don't remember which one exactly)..  A guy from the program came out and talked with us about how we were to do things from our shelters, waterers, fencing, quality of pasture...that sort of thing.  We already had a great barn that we had been using for the last hundred years for mules, and then show cattle (it's still our showbarn today and it's in great shape).. We had to put up new fence, and the way the program dictated we do it, it would not have been our first choice but we did it that way anyhow.  ANYHOW, after we got everything set up the way the guy from the program said we should, he came back out and we supposedly still had some things to improve, so we put in more automatic waterers w/heaters, got rid of ALL stock tanks, and put in new mangers and drastically improved the lots where the show calves run.  He came back out again and said everything looked good, and we gave him the receipts and records of what we had purchased and invoices from the company we used to fence (which the guy from the program suggested), and the guy said we should have a check reimbursing us and probably then some within 6 to 8 weeks...it never came and never came, so we got ahold of the people running the program and they hemmed and hawed and ran us around and we finally just said forget it, chalk it up to experience.  Now we do everything ourselves and hope to God the cattle will pay for it all (eventually). 

 

[knabe]

that's too funny OFS.  government always knows best whether they give you money or not. 

just like MTBE.  just like new pollution controls.  they just can't resist telling people what to do.  typical.

must.......... eliminate................ capitalism.................because .......................failure........................must..............be ....................subsidized

 

[shortyjock89]

That's pretty much what we were thinking.  They sure do like to dangle that carrot, but as soon as you prove yourself as able to do things on your own, I guess rewarding you would just be silly wouldn't it? 

I think we would have gotten the money if we had acted clueless and messed up a few times, and then finally just let the gov't do it for us. 

 

[klintdog]

That sounds like the EQUIP program that is available here in ND. They will provide cost-share money for corral development, etc, but you must follow their rules based on cell grazing, the number of waterers available, etc.

 

[CM Cattle]

I havent heard of the grant, but I know here in Oklahoma you can get a youth loan. I have gotten 3 so far to purchase cattle and to use for operating costs. They are low interest rates with yearly payments. I got mine from our extension office, but farm credit also has them (i think).

I'm in ky, and I have got a youth loan for the past three years. Thats how I started showing cattle, I would have never had the money to start showing if it wasn't for youth loans.

 

[BCCC]

That sounds like the EQUIP program that is available here in ND. They will provide cost-share money for corral development, etc, but you must follow their rules based on cell grazing, the number of waterers available, etc.

We have more then 10,000 acres in the EQUIP program. They helped pay for a few new water wells, and a few more fiber glass water tanks. They went and told us where we needed to put the waters, and had us put out deals to tell how much grass they had eaten, They also give us a schedule of when to move them to the next pasture. In the next few years we will be taking care of ALOT of the sage brush that is out there. We also had a couple sections of farm land that we put into the EQUIP program that we switched around to a grass pasture. They told us which grasses to plant that would strive and do well with no water, but would benefit from water. They then paid for the seed, and for someone to come plant it. They also paid to have have 6 wind breaks planted with over 500 trees in them. We now use the pasture as a heifer pasture, its about 2 miles form our feed yard so we can feed them when necessary. So far it has been a win win deal for us.


I also have taken out a youth loan from  FSA, and haven't had any trouble with it. The guy is actually coming out to our place on Monday for us to sign all the paper work. It does take awhile(about a month) to get all the paper work done.

 

[knabe]

out here, they use what used to be the soil conservation service and equip to basically streamline the regulation process so you don't have to deal with 7 or 8 agencies.  they do it for you, but in exchange, they tell you what to do and will impose things like you need a permit to remove noxious weeds from streambeds, you can't remove trees that block streams and roll flooding to surrounding areas, and you can't graze in the stream beds to keep some of the willows tromped down.  they don't have much flexiblity unless it's government owned land, then they can do what they want and simply have a lawyer remind them in a public forum that if the agency deems it in the public good, they can ignore any science, or any species, or any existing zoning.  they actually did this at a public hearing the other day with a tiger salamander pond because a college is going in on the site and they are going to rezone it for high density housing, of course right next to me.  all the while the property was allowed a property tax exemption for literally 20 years to be kept as a hay field.  when they found out the college was interested in the site, they immediately over disced the field to destroy kit fox burrows, burrowing owls, and tiger salamander habitat, and low and behold, when their environemntal team went to take a survey, they didn't find anything.

i think these agencies need to be seriously curtailed.  they "always" know what's best and the owner "never" does.  no comprimising.