Dairy among Iowa rural projects receiving federal funding
NORWAY, Iowa (AP) — There are half as many American dairy farms today as there were 20 years ago and the ones that survive are trying something new.
For Austin and Jenna Schulte, of rural Benton County, that means building a creamery where they can use milk from their 186 Holsteins to produce Gouda, Jarlsberg, quark and cheddar cheeses.
“We have to do something different or we’ll be done,” Jenna Schulte told Xochitl Torres Small, undersecretary for rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, during a tour last week of the farm.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports the dairy has been awarded a $36,000 Value-Added Producer Grant from the USDA to create a business plan and conduct a feasibility study on making and marketing cheese produced on site.
It’s one of 21 projects that have received $74.7 million in loans or grants to improve infrastructure and expand business in rural Iowa. Much of the investment goes to rural hospitals to buy equipment or recover from the economic impact of the pandemic, and to water treatment and distribution projects. The funding comes from several federal pots, including the American Rescue Plan Act, disaster aid and regular rural development funds.
Torres Small, accompanied by Theresa Greenfield, the USDA’s Iowa coordinator for Rural Development, also planned to visit three other grant recipients: LDJ Manufacturing in Pella; Mahaska County Hospital in Oskaloosa; and the William Penn University nursing school in Oskaloosa.
The Schultes bought their small dairy operation in 2010, the same year their oldest son, Caleb, was born. But American cow milk consumption is slowing and there’s been an oversupply, causing prices to plummet. The pandemic brought further volatility.
From more than 70,000 dairy producers in 2003, the United...