From the National Milk Producers Federation:

Following the USDA's announcement last week of a new round of disaster assistance to agricultural producers, with signup beginning today, the National Milk Producers Federation has created a resource guide to help farmers understand and apply for the program. The toolbox, part of NMPF's ongoing service to the dairy community during the coronavirus crisis, includes a breakdown of what the latest Coronavirus Food Assistance Program includes for dairy, as well as a link to relevant application resources.

"Helping dairy farmers understand complex government programs to gain their full benefits is especially important during this challenging time," said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. "The best way to do that is to be there at the beginning, and we hope farmers will find these resources useful as they consider their options, starting today."

Highlights of the so-called CFAP 2.0 include:

• A dairy payment amounting to $1.20-per-hundredweight on a farm's production during the last nine months of 2020. Dairy payments will be based on actual milk production from April 1 to Aug. 31, 2020. Milk production for Sept. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020, will be estimated by FSA, using daily average production from the April-August base period of known production.
• 100% of the payment will be made once a farm's eligibility is determined, meaning there will be no 20% holdback as with earlier assistance.
• For dairy beef, producers are eligible for cattle inventory payment on bull calves and dairy steers, but not for breeding stock. The payment is $55-per-head on eligible cattle in inventory on a date between April and the end of August selected by the producer.
• Significantly, this round's payment limitation provision has been expanded to include trusts and estates for both rounds of CFAP payments, meaning those who were disadvantaged by restrictive trust-related payment interpretations in the first round will have their situation resolved for that round as well as in the latest tranche of aid. The application of direct attribution is also modified so payment limits won't be reduced based on ownership shares, providing more equitable support to dairy farmers of various ownership structures.

A full range of coronavirus-related materials to help guide dairy producers, processors and allied businesses is available at nmpf.org/coronavirus. NMPF also has set up a separate webpage dedicated to resources to help dairy farmers struggling through natural disasters. That's at nmpf.org/disaster-resources/.