Assistance Programs

Agriculture Drought Recovery Program

The N.C. Agriculture Drought Recovery Program has been created to help North Carolina farmers reeling from the state’s drought. It will cover 75 percent of the cost of restoring drought-damaged pastureland and providing additional water supply for livestock and crops.

The program is being administered statewide through local Soil and Water Conservation district offices. It was made possible by a $6 million grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. The N.C. Rural Center and the Agricultural Advancement Consortium worked with the General Assembly’s Joint Select Committee on Agricultural Drought Response, several state agencies and other agricultural interests to design the program.
Details

The deadline for all hay transportation cost-share assistance programs was May 1

The Ag and Equine Partners Hay Relief Program helped owners of cattle, equine, sheep and goats defray some of cost of transporting hay from outside North Carolina. Our thanks go out to the many organizations, corporations and individuals who contributed to this program.

The Golden Hay Relief Program provided assistance for the transportation of North Carolina-grown hay or forage products within North Carolina. Our thanks go out to the Golden LEAF Foundation, which provided a grant to make this program possible.

How to Reduce the Potential Spread of Plant Pests in Hay and Other Fodder

The NCDA&CS Plant Industry Division regulates, through quarantines, the movement of agricultural or related items capable of spreading harmful insects, diseases, weeds and other plant pests. Growers may be required to secure a permit or certificate for the movement of hay, straw, fodder or plant litter of any kind moving interstate or intrastate. Articles being moved in violation of a plant pest quarantine may be subject to destruction or returned to shipper. For a full list of regulated/quarantined articles or to obtain a certificate or permit, please contact the Plant Industry Division at 1-800-206-9333. You also can download this document, "Moving Hay or Fodder for Livestock Feeding Purposes? Check with the NCDA&CS-Plant Industry to Reduce Potential Spread of Plant Pests" (PDF file).

Farmers Encouraged to Have Forage Tested

Forage testing provides useful information about the nutritional value of feed or forage. This information can be used to adjust the amount of protein and energy supplements used with the feed or forage to meet the needs of animals. It is also important to test forage and grains for nitrate and aflatoxin levels to avoid production losses. Contact the NCDA&CS Food and Drug Protection Division, (919) 733-7366.

If Harvesting Soybeans for Hay, Use Caution
to Guard Against Chemical Contamination

Growers wishing to harvest drought-damaged soybeans for hay should check the label of any chemical they have used for restrictions on feeding. Many herbicide labels have restrictions that do not allow feeding of hay from treated soybeans. For more information, download this N.C. Cooperative Extension document, "Harvesting Soybeans for Hay? Consider Prior Use of Chemicals" (PDF file).

Horse Owners Should Take Caution When Feeding Soybean and Peanut Hay

Soybean and peanut hays have been successfully fed to horses in the Carolinas. Although peanut hay is listed as a suitable forage for horses in the 6th Revised Edition of Nutrient Requirements of Horses, soybean hay does not appear. Both hays must be properly used and fed to equine at an immature growth stage. Consumption of course, stemmy, mature soybean and peanut hays increases the risk of gas colic and reduced performance due to mycotoxin. The soybeans in the hay contain a trypsin inhibitor which inhibits protein digestive enzymes. Thus, protein digestibility in the horse is lowered when feeding raw soybeans to mature horses. Therefore, the protein content of the concentrate mix should be increased to 14 percent.

Growing horses, including foals, yearlings and 2-year-olds, should not be fed raw soybeans due to an increased incidence of cartilage-related growth diseases. When processing soybean meal, heating the soybeans destroys the trypsin inhibitor. For more information, download this Cooperative Extension document, "Drought Feeding of Horses" (PDF file).

Hay Sellers, Beware of Potential Scams

Hay Alert advertisers should be aware of potential scams that have come to the department's attention.

In the most recent examples, a hay buyer contacts the seller by e-mail and offers to send extra funds, either to guarantee a future order or to be sent to a third party to cover transportation costs. The "buyer" may refer to this as an "overdraft payment." The "buyer" then asks the seller to confirm personal information, such as full name, mailing address, and home, office and cell phone numbers.

In some instances, the "buyer" claims to have arranged for shipping. The "buyer" instructs the seller to deduct payment for the hay from the amount sent, and to send the remaining balance to the shipping firm. In other cases, the person asks the seller to arrange shipment and to return any unused money. It is suspected that the payment is fake, and the "buyer's" request to send funds to a third party or return unused money is simply a ploy to steal from the seller.

A similar scam surfaced a few years ago. The way it works is that a potential hay buyer sends the seller a fake cashier's check, made out for several thousand dollars more than the agreed upon selling price. Then the "buyer" claims to have made a mistake and asks the seller to wire the difference back.

The victim deposits the check, the bank credits their account, and the seller assumes the check has cleared. So the seller wires the requested funds, the check bounces, and the bank reduces the seller's account by the wired amount, sometimes cleaning the account out and leaving a negative balance.

Some ways to spot these scams: They usually have multiple misspellings, poor grammar and typically look like form letters. They will typically send a "check" to you and pressure you to deposit it quickly and send a refund. The scams most often originate overseas, but may have an accomplice here in the United States. The people posing as buyers might be male or female.

---

If you experience problems with this site, please send e-mail to agweb@ncmail.net.