USDA Grants Aim To Help Numerous Dairy-Related Businesses Expand

As part of the inaugural meeting of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, President Biden and US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Monday announced that USDA is making investments that are intended to strengthen US food and agriculture supply chains, expand markets for agricultural producers, and lower food costs.

Specifically, USDA is making investments in 185 projects worth almost $196 million to create new and better market opportunities for producers and entrepreneurs in over three dozen states and Puerto Rico.

USDA is making these investments through several programs designed to create economic opportunities for people and businesses in rural areas.
These programs include, among others, Rural Business Development Grants, Value-Added Producer Grants, Business and Industry Loan Guarantees, and the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program.

The Merrimack County Conservation District in New Hampshire will receive a $47,000 Rural Business Development Grant to improve marketing of wholesale and retail vegetable, meat, and value-added dairy products for Brookford Farms. The project includes business development and training, creation of an e-commerce site, and setting up automated marketing.

Alexandre Dairy, located in Crescent City, CA, will receive a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to pay for value-added processing and supplies for yogurt production.

Stepladder Farmstead Creamery LLC, Cambria, CA, will receive a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to pay for a digital marketing campaign, processing, and packaging costs in its efforts to expand sales of independently produced goat cheese into the Pacific Northwest market.

Stony Creek Dairy LLC, Melrose, MN, will receive a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to help finance processing and marketing costs to produce pasteurized milk bags known as “school milk bags.” This is intended to expand sales of school milk bags for the company.

Crooked Creek Farms LLC, Sidney, MT, will receive a $35,400 Value-Added Producer grant to expand its customer base and enhance profitability. This business, solely owned by Hayley Darnielle, is a small raw-dairy, cage free egg and pasture-raised poultry farm. Its products include raw milk, raw cream and raw butter. The grant will provide working capital for marketing, supplies, and transportation costs.

Stewgler Farm and Forest LLC, Stockton, NJ, will receive a $75,068 Value-Added Producer Grant, which will be used as working capital to develop, produce, and launch to market a portfolio of aged goat milk cheeses. The grant will also help to expand the farm’s goat dairy products customer base and accessibility to goat milk dairy products.

North Country Creamery LLC, Keeseville, NY, will receive a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant, which will be used to provide working capital to expand its product line by making cheese and yogurt.
Painterland Farms LLC, Westfield, PA, will receive a $216,000 Value-Added Producer Grant, which will provide working capital to streamline the expansion of its current organic Icelandic-style Skyr yogurt production and marketing.

Split Creek Farms LLC, Anderson, SC, will receive a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant, which will be used to provide working capital for expenses associated with processing and marketing goat milk into cheeses for wholesale and to sell the raw milk into new markets.

Milky Way Jersey Farm Inc., dba Milky Way, Starr, SC, will use a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to increase the customer base for its pasteurized and flavored milk.

Grant funds and matching funds will help offset the cost of labor, supplies, marketing, and distribution.

Lowcountry Creamery LLC, Bowman, SC, will use a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to expand the customer base and sales of its pasteurized and flavored milk throughout the regions of South Carolina.

The grant funds and matching funds at Lowcountry Creamery will be used to offset the costs of marketing, labor, supplies, delivery, and utilities.
Knolle Dairy Farms Inc, Sandia, TX, will use a $49,999 Value-Added Producer Grant to provide working capital to increase profitability and farm expansion in addition to covering processing costs, as well as distribution costs of the value-added product.

Bates Family Farm LLC, Cedar Bluff, VA, will use a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to expand processing capacity and marketing of its specialty spa and household items produced from goat milk produced on site in the mountains of southwest Virginia.
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