Incentives Available Through USDA Grant
As we continue to look for ways your Cooperative can bring value to your farm, we are taking advantage of an opportunity from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that allows you, as a DFA farmer-owner, access to funds for implementing and enhancing sustainability initiatives on your farm.
Through USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant program, DFA was awarded up to $45 million to provide more accessible and affordable options to farmer-owners looking to invest in and accelerate on-farm sustainability initiatives and practices.
This is a unique opportunity available to you as an owner of the Cooperative and ensures federal investments in agriculture land in the hands of dairy producers, specifically DFA farmer-owners.
We’ll be piloting projects in milksheds supplying three DFA manufacturing plants located in Garden City, Kan., Franklin, Mass., and Bridgeton, N.J.
Any interested farmer-owner shipping into one of these plants will be considered for participation and funding. States supplying these plants include Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont.
Our pilot project focuses on maximizing accessible and affordable opportunities for you to accelerate and better integrate your on-farm sustainability practices.
Focus Areas
Accelerating regenerative agriculture (conservation practices like cover crops and no-till or reduced tillage farming)
Reducing enteric methane emissions (adapting dairy cows’ rations to increase feed efficiency and reduce gases from the digestive process)
Optimizing manure management (storing, treating and applying manure in ways that reduce gas emissions and maximize manure's nutrient and organic matter benefits for soil)
In addition to supporting your efforts, DFA will have the opportunity to strategically position and leverage our dairy products as climate-smart or sustainably made with consumers.