REAP

USDA's recently rolled out grading dashboard is designed for producers and livestock stakeholders to learn more about beef, lamb and veal price discovery and market information. This tool has similarities to IT dashboards used by large production and processing companies. Taylor Cox of the Agricultural Marketing Service. The smaller producers, they don't have those IT teams. So as we built this internal product, we certainly had in mind that small producer being able to use this tool as a historical tool it has 10 years of data in there. They can certainly use that as a production and marketing resource. It's a program that rural energy providers, businesses and communities can reap a variety of benefits from. It helps agricultural producers and rural small businesses purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements. It is not only biomass energy, but all kinds of energy products that are going to improve energy efficiency. USDA Rural Business and Cooperative Service Administrator Kurama Neal says applications for REAP guaranteed loans and grants are now being accepted. For fiscal year 2022 grant application deadlines are October 31st of this year and March 31st of next. In terms of eligibility, that can vary depending on what project you're interested in applying for. It’s just a variety of entities. More details are available online RD.USDA.gov.