Posted at: 11/03/2009 2:40 PM
By: David Springer

Print Story  Email to a Friend

USDA Announces New Grants for Beginning Farmers

(ABC 6 NEWS) – The owners of the Hidden Stream Farm in Elgin, Minnesota say their farm most likely wouldn't be as successful if not for the specialized training they received through a program called "Farm Beginnings."

"They helped us establish a network that we still use today. We still know the people that we started with and we mentor and work with people that have gone through it in recent years," says Lisa Klein of Hidden Stream Farm.

People like Aimee Finley, a St. Charles Dairy farmer, got help putting together a viable business plan.

"You get overwhelmed because you're still trying to do the day to day chores and the business stuff sometimes gets put on the wayside," says Finley.

Their stories are two of the reasons USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan was at the Hidden Stream Farm today.

The other reason was to announce $17-million in grants for the new "Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program."

Watch ABC 6 News tonight at 5:00 for the rest of the story with ABC 6 News reporter David Springer.