By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor COLUMBUS, Ohio — In an effort to assist 2007 drought victims, United Producers, a cooperative livestock marketing service, recently unveiled a financing program through Producers Credit Corp. (PCC), to offer its members an opportunity to purchase replacement beef heifers.
“We want to help our cow/calf producers by providing a program to make it easy for them to get cattle back on their farms,” said Dennis Bolling, president and CEO of United Producers Inc. (UPI).
The loan program became effective April 3 and is available to UPI members and beef producers impacted by the 2007 drought in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. The minimum loan request is $10,000 and if it exceeds $100,000, applicants are subject to additional requirements. The UPI financing program was specifically designed to meet the needs of its members and will be offered for a limited time only, according to Amy Fovargue, manager of corporate communications at UPI.
“However, if someone really wants this loan, all they have to do is pay the $25 preferred membership fee and that would be welcomed as well,” she commented. “We want to give members the benefit of this loan rate first, but if others want to apply they could.”
Interest rates for the loan follow Wall Street Prime Variable Rates, which as of March 20, were listed as 5.25 percent, but change regularly, Fovargue explained. Additional requirements for the special financing are listed on the UPI website, available by logging onto www.uproducers.com.
“We want to get our cooperative members back in business, with their cattle back on pastures, and this is a way of offering them that opportunity,” said Fovargue. “We are a cooperative, that’s what we’re about, providing these kind of benefits to our members.”
Through the loan program, producers are encouraged to purchase replacement bred beef cows, bred heifers and cow/calf pairs to build their herds back up to pre-drought levels.
Lingering effects of drought According to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA), production and yields for corn, soybeans, tobacco, hay and winter wheat were significantly lower in 2007 than in 2006 because of the drought and the April 2007 freeze.
The effects of the drought on Kentucky pastures caused many livestock producers to send more animals to market than usual last year, KDA stated. A continuing shortage of hay due to the drought, along with record high prices for grain, has resulted in a steep increase in farmers’ input costs.
Indiana and Ohio also faced tremendous production losses in 2007 affecting the bottom line of its livestock producers as well. According to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), hay yields in 2007 were down 35 percent from 2006, due in part to a late frost in the spring and the summer drought.
Consequently, the cost of hay is still nearly twice as much, and the additional cost is an expense many livestock farmers didn’t anticipate, ISDA lamented.
Because of the 2007 drought, many feeder calf producers were forced to liquidate or cut back on their herds, Fovargue added.
For this reason, UPI generated a loan program to suit the needs of its members and offer a potential solution to the challenge of post-drought herd losses.
For more information or to apply for a loan, contact a local UPI representative or visit www.uproducers.com
This farm news was published in the April 23, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
