BISMARCK – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) issued the following statement today on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) allowing North Dakota producers in select counties who planted cover crops on prevented plant acres to hay, graze, or chop those fields two months early:
“North Dakota producers face local natural disasters and a global pandemic in their fight to get their product to market. This earlier date provides them with flexibility and allows our ranchers to feed the excess livestock they did not expect to have because of the meat processing backlog. We are grateful to President Trump and his Administration for once again looking out for North Dakota’s agricultural community.”
Senator Cramer advocated for this change in a letter led by Senator John Thune (R-SD) earlier this year. According to USDA, the change is being made because of excessive moisture and flooding. USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey announced the change today.
“Farmers in the Dakotas have seen excessive moisture over the winter and into this spring, and we made this one-year adjustment to help farmers remain good stewards of the land and provide an opportunity to ensure quality forage is available for livestock this fall,” said Northey.
Qualifying counties in North Dakota include: Barnes, Benson, Bottineau, Cass, Dickey, Eddy, Foster, Grand Forks, Griggs, Kidder, La Moure, Mcintosh, Nelson, Ramsey, Ransom, Rolette, Sargent, Sheridan, Steele, Stutsman, Towner, Traill, and Wells.