LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) has announced some 301 agriculture safety grants for small farms, large farms as well as processors.

Grants for the large farms and food processors amount to $15 million, while the grants for the small farms amount to $567,000. “Michigan’s food and agriculture sector has been hit particularly hard by covid-19, and through the Michigan Agricultural Safety Grant program we were able to provide some relief to our farmers and food processors across the state while ensuring the safety of our agricultural workforce and food production,” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a news release. “This program puts federal funding to work for Michigan’s farms and builds on additional covid-19 relief efforts led by MEDC (Michigan Economic Development Corp) and MDARD to create a strong foundation for Michigan’s long-term economic recovery.”

The program was approved in July and used $15 million in federal CARES Act funds to provide relief to the state’s agricultural processors and to farms having to spend resources on covid-19 mitigation efforts. The awards, however, are not necessarily for covid-19 mitigation. The grant program, administered by MEDC and Greenstone Farm Credit Services, made awards on a first-come, first-served basis. $10 million was awarded to agricultural processors, while $5 million was awarded to the large farms. A separate, related program doled out money for many small farms.

One of those small farms, the Michigan Hop Alliance of Northport, Mich., received a $5,000 grant to help the small firm buy safety guards for its processing machines, which are used during harvest. Michigan Hop Alliance co-owner Brian Tennis said the safety guards will help to keep its crew from losing fingers during harvest time, when the giant hop plants must be passed through a large processing machine as the plant cones are separated. Each $1,000 a grant recipient receives is supposed to represent one job retained. Tennis said the company uses five employees during harvest time.

“The $5,000 was just a fraction of what it cost to upgrade the equipment,” Tennis said. “The last thing you want is to have someone get injured. The money is just a drop in the bucket, but every little bit helps.”

Tennis added that some funds were also used to buy masks and other personal protective equipment. The Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) also received a grant for two of its milk processing plants, one in Cass City and the other in Adrian. The total amount of the award was for $73,000, with 73 jobs retained, the MDARD announcement said. Most of the money was used to have nurses available to do health checks on the plant workers, as well as on truck haulers bringing in milk to be processed, according to Scott Corrin, director of operations for the mideast area of the DFA.

“With a milk processor, you can’t just prevent people from coming into the plant,” Corrin said. “These grants didn’t cover the entire cost that we had, but it did help immensely. When you have a perishable product, you can’t just shut down. The plant is an essential business.”

Corrin said that in addition to health care staff costs, grant money was also used to buy an iPad smart phone, which has a feature on it where plant workers can take their own temperature when health care staff are not available. The truck drivers coming into the plant have to go through a health screening as well. Corrin said that state mandates have made these checks absolutely necessary for the plants to remain open.

A complete list of all the grant recipients is available at www.michigan.gov/mdard.