Kentucky Farms to receive $8.15 million Aid

Finally, after a fairly grueling year between the drought last summer, and the tremendous amount of rains this winter, the Kentucky government officials have unveiled a plan to help Kentucky farms. The plan is called Kentucky Agricultural Relief Effort and will give $8.15 million to Kentucky farms that were damaged last year. Many farms beyond just KY horse farms have been affected. A little known fact is that while the largest Kentucky farms product is horses, Kentucky is also the largest cattle/beef producer east of the Mississippi River. We even are in the top 5 for goat production in the United States.

With the harsh conditions over the last year, hay prices have kept increasing - and are now to the point that hay is being brought in from other states to take care of our livestock. With spring approaching, expectations (and hopes) are high that we should be back to the over abundance of hay production for which are regularly known for. Additional strains on Kentucky farms have been record high prices being paid for soybeans & corn - which makes using those as possible feed alternatives for livestock not viable. And the tremendously high oil prices affect things such as diesel fuel and fertilizer.

All of which has made farms in Kentucky feel the pinch.

Kentucky farmers may apply for aid for a variety of needs including: water enhancements, feed storage, pasture/forage improvements, fencing among other such items that a farmer would need.

This Aid program is being broken into an 18 month distribution and 3 groups. The 3 groups are as follows:

$4.1 million to be allocated to Kentucky countys

$2.05 million from state monies to be allocated which matches 50 cents per dollar of the county monies

$2 million to be split after the all other monies have been spent

The exact formulas for how much farms in Kentucky can expect to receive varies greatly - but some framers can expect to get up to $5000 from the state, and up to $2500 from the county in which they reside giving a potential $7500 boost to their financials.

The gross dollar amounts are as follows:

Fayette County KY is expected to receive for use and help of Lexington KY farms is $113895.

Jessamine County KY is expected to receive for use and help of Nicholasville KY farms is $90960.

Woodford County KY is expected to receive for use and help of Versailles KY farms is $116454.

Scott County KY is expected to receive for use and help of Georgetown KY farms is $123819.

The following is of special importance for Kentucky farms that intend to apply for benefits of this program: The deadline to apply is August 1, 2008. The expenses for farms in KY from December 1, 2007 will be able to be counted retroactively for help and assistance from this program.