By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Corn growers feeling cheated in tariff relief are bending the ears of USDA to try and get more of the payout.

The first half of the $12 billion set aside for relief from retaliatory Chinese tariffs gives U.S. corn producers 1 cent per bushel, when the price drop on corn resulting from the trade war between could reach as high as 44 cents per bushel, said Lynn Chrisp, president of the National Corn Growers Assoc.

“There are many folks that think the penny is closer to an insult than what has been lost in the market disruptions,’’ he explained.

Chrisp made his concerns known in a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, in hopes the funding formula will be favorably adjusted for corn producers before the next round of checks go out in December.

According to the USDA, just $838 million was paid out to farmers by mid-November under its Market Facilitation Program (MFP) since the first $6 billion in tariff relief was made available in September. Of this, $4.7 billion was allocated for direct producer payments, with the rest going to programs such as marketing.

Chrisp said the USDA was low in its September estimate on losses for corn growers because of calculations based strictly on tariffs related strictly to kernel corn. The projections did not take into account the ethanol and distillers dried grains with solubles that China has also stopped buying from the U.S., along with other negative impacts on the corn market brought on by the tariffs.

Chrisp said he’s not downplaying the significant losses to soybean and other food producers from the trade war, but feels corn growers are not receiving a proportionate share of the aid. “We’re hearing from our membership that it’s not even close,” he explained.

Similar appeals for additional funding are coming from other organizations, like the National Milk Producers Federation. According to NMPF, already struggling dairy producers stand to lose more than $1 billion from the trade war, but just $127 million is provided for them in the first half of the relief package.

“The government needs to act to alleviate the hardship America’s milk producers face as a result of the trade disputes,” said Jim Mulhern, NMPF president and CEO. “We look forward to working with USDA and White House on solutions that address the cost of the trade war that has exacerbated the economic struggle facing dairy producers and the cooperatives they own.”

Perdue said the government is not likely to increase the $12 billion earmarked for trade war relief. Without additional funds, the amount reserved for certain commodity producers would have to be reduced to increase payments to others.

Initially, $3.6 billion of the first $4.7 billion to be dispersed was going to soybean growers under the present allocation schedule. They have been determined to hurt the most because of the huge amount of U.S. soybeans China used to purchase.

Another source of unrest for farmers has been MFP payments not getting dispersed as quickly as originally anticipated to help with cash flow. Farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota have received most of the financial assistance already given out, according to USDA. The amount each farmer can receive is capped at $125,000.

MFP dollars are also earmarked for producers of pork, sorghum, wheat, cotton, shelled almonds and sweet cherries.

Perdue said the remainder of the full amount of MFP dollars set aside will likely go out in December. All of the funds didn’t go out sooner because of market conditions and trade talks being monitored to see if there was any change in need for assistance, he explained. He has also said no more trade mitigation payments for 2019 are likely because of the time farmers have had to adjust to changes in market conditions brought on by the trade war.

According to Donna Ferguson, public affairs coordinator for the USDA’s Indiana Farm Service Agency, if a second payment rate is announced, it would be in early December. “We do not have any idea what the rates might be,” she noted earlier this week.