1. How many farms will be accepted into the WV Dairy Farm Consultation & Reinvestment Program?
Nineteen dairy farms in West Virginia to be enrolled in the program/grant.
2. What is the timeframe for the program/grant?
The grant funding needs to be utilized within five years.
3. What is the total funding available for farms who utilize all three phases of the grant/program?
$21,000 over five years for cow-based dairy herds and $16,000 for goat-based dairy herds.
4. What is the purpose of this grant program?
The purpose of this program is to facilitate reinvestment and growth on 19 West Virginia dairy farms to better position those farms for profitability and sustainability.
5. Who is this grant program funded by?
This grant program is being offered by the Center for Dairy Excellence, a non-profit organization based in Pennsylvania serving the dairy industry, with funding provided by the USDA Increasing Land, Capital, Market Access Cooperative Agreement – Working Lands of Central Appalachia Program at the West Virginia University Institute for Community and Rural Health. The Center for Dairy Excellence has a 21-year history in offering grants and resources to dairy farms, but this is the Center’s first project in West Virginia.
6. Why should our farm consider participating in this program?
Dairy farmers know all too well how challenging working in this business can be. Participating in this program would give you access to more consulting resources and funding to better position your business for the future. The program would offer you consulting services and seed money to invest and grow your dairy operation. It would pair you with an outside business consultant to provide perspective on opportunities to strengthen your dairy business for the long term and provide funding to support a team approach to issues like business transformation, generational transition, and herd productivity. In addition to this consulting support, the grant also provides seed money for your dairy to invest in low-cost improvements that could strengthen your bottom line and connects you with other dairy farms in cohorts to share and learn from each other.
7. What are the steps involved with this program?
- Step 1: A farm can apply to participate in the program at www.centerfordairyexcellence.org/wv-grants or by completing a printed application and mailing it back to the Center for Dairy Excellence, care of Melissa Anderson, Program Manager, 1140 Mountain View Road, Shermans Dale, PA 17090.
- Step 2: Once a dairy farm is enrolled and accepted into the program, you will be asked to complete a needs assessment survey to provide basic information about your dairy operation, priority areas for your business, and what your goals are so we can make sure you are paired with a business consultant who can best support your needs.
- Step 3: Once the needs assessment survey form is submitted to the Center, your dairy farm will be assigned a business consultant who will work with you to do an initial business consultation using your feedback within the needs assessment to identify your specific goals and objectives for your dairy. To do that initial visit, the consultant will need to have access to your farm financials so they can do a whole farm evaluation and help you identify opportunities to help you achieve your goals and strengthen your overall dairy operation.
- Step 4: Once that initial consultation is completed, you will receive a business summary report that will provide you with strategies and recommendations to help guide the next steps for your dairy. The cost of this initial consultation and business summary, valued at $5,000, is paid by the Center.
- Step 5: Once the summary is provided, the Center program manager will work with you to help you identify and organize a team of your trusted advisors to work through the options presented in the report and develop a path forward. Key advisors could include your accountant, lender, veterinarian, and/or nutritionist. It could also include business consultants and other outside consultants you want to include. The team’s purpose would be to identify a path forward and how to source funding and resources to support that path forward. Each farm has up to $6,000 in support to cover consulting costs associated with this team review step of the project. This funding is provided to the farmer to reimburse expenses associated with the team effort, with a 25 percent match from the farm or other funding sources required.
- Step 6: Once the team has identified the path forward and you are ready to take the next steps, the Center will provide your dairy farm with a reinvestment grant of up to $10,000 for a dairy cow based operation or up to $5,000 for a dairy goat-based operation to use as seed money to invest in the steps identified to help strengthen your dairy. A 25 percent match is required for this reinvestment grant, and all funds are paid as a reimbursement on expenses incurred. You also must demonstrate how the reinvestment dollars will improve sustainability and profitability for your dairy.
8. Who will serve as the business consultant working with my dairy?
The Center is working with Horizon Farm Credit to provide business consultants to work with farms in the initial Phase 1 Business consultation. They are also available to use in Phase 2, but the farmer can choose team members for that phase depending on what works best for the individual operation. You can find the list of business consultants identified for this program here. Since this program requires specific expectations of the business consultants, farms must work with one of the business consultants listed on the Center website under this program.
9. How is the consultant paid?
In Phase 1, the consultant will submit all invoices, along with a copy of the business summary report, to the Center for Dairy Excellence. The Center will pay the consultant up to $5,000.00. Consultants must inform dairy farm owners if any consulting services exceed the amount allocated by the Center before providing that service. In Phase 2 and 3, any consulting costs or other expenses must be incurred by the farm and reimbursed by the Center to ensure the 25 percent match.
10. What can I expect from the business consultation, and will I be asked to provide any feedback?
Once you complete the needs assessment survey and meet with the business consultant initially to provide your goals and objectives for your dairy, along with answering any questions and providing any information required, it is the business consultant’s job to provide perspective on how you can accomplish those goals and/or to provide answers to your questions. They will do that by visiting your farm, talking with you, your partners, and your team, collecting your financial and production information, and analyzing the information they collect from those pieces. They will build the business summary from their observations to provide the feedback you are requesting. Depending on your situation, they may visit your farm a second time to review the report with you and answer any of your questions regarding their review. You will have the opportunity to complete a survey on the consultation after they have shared the business summary with you to provide your perspective on whether the experience has met your expectations and if they have provided meaningful input on the next steps for your operation.
11. What is the purpose of a team?
A team of key advisors, like the nutritionist, veterinarian, business consultant, lender, accountant, attorney, with the consultant serving as a facilitator for the team, will meet and help the farm to identify and organize the options presented in the business summary and identify a pathway forward toward implementation of those options. Up to $6,000 in financial support for the team is intended to help cover discovery related and paid team member costs associated with the team.
12. What are discovery related costs?
Discovery related costs could be testing and research associated with whatever option the team identified to move forward. It could also include permitting costs, site work, and design assistance on a project. Discovery related costs would be anything that is a cost associated with identifying the best path forward for the farm.
13. What expenses are considered to be eligible team expenses for reimbursement?
- Team member time: The consultant’s time may be in-person, one-to-one meetings or consultation via email or phone.
- Team member mileage: Consultant travel to the team meeting, driver expenses for Plain Sect, team member travel to other farm locations within the state of Pennsylvania (recommendation to travel to the site should be reflected in the meeting notes)
- Feasibility studies, cash flow analysis, business planning to explore expansion or modernization.
- Site survey, permit development and permitting fees, if all other questions have been answered.
- Attorney or accounting fees associated with farm transition.
- Discovery related costs as recommended by team to identify solutions or address bottlenecks:
- Culturing to identify bacteria causing high SCC or mastitis, testing to identify feeding or water quality issues, stray voltage testing.
- One-time only report for DHIA, PC Dart, SPR etc. for baseline determination
- Request for reimbursement for a unique team expense should be forwarded to Melissa Anderson with explanation for approval.
14. How do the expenses/invoices for Transition and Transformation Teams get paid?
- Meeting notes / explanation of invoice must be submitted with expenses and a completed expense form for the expenses to be reimbursed. Once the expense form and invoices are approved, payments will be processed to the farm. Payments could take up to four weeks to be processed.
- Expenses will be reimbursed to producer only.
- Producer agrees to complete a survey at the end of the grant funding period.
- Meeting summaries, invoices/expenses, and expense form to be sent to: Center for Dairy Excellence, Attn: Melissa Anderson, 1140 Mountain View Rd., Shermans Dale, PA 17090 or emailed to: manderson@centerfordairyexcellence.org
- For questions on reimbursement, please contact Melissa Anderson at 717-788-0296 or email: manderson@centerfordairyexcellence.org.
No expense reimbursements will be made until a W9 is received
15. What is a Reinvestment Grant?
After the consultation assessment and business summary report has been completed, farms will move into the reinvestment stage. Projects would include anything related to improving dairy farm efficiency, cow comfort, milking facilities, housing facilities, or feeding system. The project should focus on improving herd performance and/or enhancing overall farm profitability. Projects will need to be approved prior to reinvestment grant issued.
Based on the team’s review and plans, the farm would have seed money to invest in one of the growth opportunities identified. Funds would be awarded on a 25 percent cost share basis, meaning that the farmer would invest at least $2,500 of their own funds ($1,250 for goat herds) or from another funding source to receive the full $10,000 ($5,000 for goat herds) in support. The goal of the reinvestment is to increase productivity, efficiency, and profitability on the dairy farm in the long term.
- Cost share for cow-based reinvestment funding – Farm invests $2,500 of their own money to receive $10,000 in support. Total investment to farm = $12,500
- Cost share goat-based reinvestment funding – Farm invests $1,250 of their own money to receive $5,000 in support. Total investment to farm = $6,250
16. How do the expenses/invoices for Reinvestment Grant or Dairy Excellence Grant get paid?
Invoices for each of the expenses sent to the Center for Dairy Excellence must be submitted with a completed CDE expense form. Once the expense form and invoices are approved, payments will be processed to the farm. Payments could take up to four weeks to be processed.
- Matching invoices must accompany expenses to be reimbursed.
- No expense reimbursements will be made until a W9 is received.
17. Who can I contact with additional questions?
Melissa Anderson is the program manager for the West Virginia Dairy Farm Consultation and Reinvestment Project. She can be reached at 717-788-0296 or by email at manderson@centerfordairyexcellence.org.