Value-added producer grants

Value-added producer grants

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
Value-added producer grants

With the farm and ranch report I'm Rick Worthington.

The Takes (TAY-kehs) family were first-generation dairy farmers.. They and their kids wanted to take the raw milk from their farm and produce a premium product with it. So after college they take his kids expressed an interest in going forward on a project. Their daughter Josie Rosen says the family began to look for financing help and they came across the value added producer grants that are available from the USDA.

"We really just wanted to wrap our heads around what the cost of something like this would be. We wanted to be able to take advantage of any resources that are out there and so luckily we got in contact with rural development through the USDA and they started talking direct about the value added producer Grant and after they heard what we were trying to achieve. It was a no brainer for us to really sit down and look at how this grant could help us. We received one value added producer Grant and it won't be the last that we applied for."

She says the value added grant helped her family get going with their business idea.

"I just always encourage people to take that leap of faith because we did and it wasn't easy. It still isn't easy but it's definitely been worth it. And just to see in three years how far we've come as a family as a creamery and and as a farm it's just really something that I look back and I can't imagine us not having done this."

For more information had the USDA dot gov.

Previous ReportCattle and Climate Change
Next ReportBeef Producers Looking Ahead