Thursday, the Michigan Legislature approved a mid-year spending Bill that would pump $15 million into a state disaster loan program. This program is intended for farmers struggling to plant crops amid continual rain.
The 34-1 Senate vote and 99-6 House approval votes came one day after governor Gretchen Whitmer asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for a federal disaster designation that would give farmers additional flexibility to access crop insurance and relief funding approved earlier this month by president Trump.
Perdue granted some flexibility Thursday when he announced Michigan farmers could harvest or graze cover crops on prevented plant acres in September and some counties could have extensions to the reporting deadline for prevented planting acres.
Whitmer is expected to sign the supplemental state spending bill after working with lawmakers to ensure the funding will “sync up” with any forthcoming federal aid, said budget spokesman Kurt Weiss.
In Michigan, where corn contributes roughly $1 billion to the economy and covers more of Michigan than any other crop, farmers had planted about 63% of their planned corn crops by June 12, the Michigan Farm Bureau said.
The stretch from May 2018 to May of this year was the third wettest on record, with roughly 38 inches of rain in that time period, according to Whitmer's office.
Source: eu.detroitnews.com