(Radio Iowa) — A rising number of beginning farmers are seeking help with loans and other financial planning, according to a report from the Center for Rural Affairs. Wyatt Fraas, the center’s farm and community assistance director, says he advises most of those who are just starting out to apply for loans through the U-S-D-A’s Farm Service Agency.  “In the last few years, there’s been a great increase in the number of small and new farmers who’ve gotten into the business,” Fraas says. “The Farm Service Agency responded to that by offering what they call a ‘microloan’ up to $50,000. Before that, they were focused on the larger commodity operations.”

Those larger operations may’ve been working with sums from the hundreds of thousands into the millions of dollars. He says many of those beginning producers have been challenged lately by low commodity prices and the trade war. “If they’re looking strictly at commodity crops, it’s very difficult to make the cash flow work,” Fraas says. “The Farm Service Agency uses a running average for the prices that they’ll use in those cases, which in this situation works to the farmer’s advantage as far as qualifying for a loan.”

Fraas says it’s critical new producers create a blueprint for their operation that can be shared with the lender. “It’s helpful for beginners to work up a business plan, something that talks about where their business is going to go, how they’re going to run it and the cashflow parts of it,” Fraas says. “The lender may not want to see the entire business plan. They specifically want to see the finances.”

Fraas says any new farmer who’s looking for advice can contact the Center for Rural Affairs, based in Lyons, Nebraska.

(Radio Iowa) — The executive director of the Iowa Turkey Federation says Iowa growers are still feeling some hang-over effects from the 2015 Avian Influenza (AI) or bird flu outbreak that saw the loss of millions of birds. Gretta Irwin says turkey producers have been able to replenish their flocks, however the demand has been down. “That is partially just due to our lack of being able to sell some of our turkey products overseas. So whether is continues to be bans because of high path A-I from 201 — to markets just not opening up because when we had A-I they replaced turkey with other products — our industry is still trying to rebound from that and get back up on our feet.”

Iowa ranks eighth in the nation for turkey production, and fifth for turkey processing. Irwin says Iowa turkey products usually end up in fast-food deli chain stores, as opposed to the center of the table for Thanksgiving dinner. “The processing part of the industry in Iowa is really key to having a successful industry,” according to Irwin. “We have great facilities in Storm Lake Iowa and in West Liberty Iowa — and if you are stopping by a deli store like Jimmy John’s or Subway — you are enjoying an Iowa turkey.”

Irwin says the consumption of turkey has remained stagnant for the last few years. She says the turkey industry is looking at ways to build additional consumption beyond this signature turkey eating holiday. “The industry is really in need of some new product ideas and some new ways of serving turkey and sparking interest in the product again,” Irwin explains. “Yeah, it is something we work on 365 days in our industry, not just Thanksgiving, because it is a year-round protein.”

Iowa raises approximately 12 million turkeys each year.