Volunteer fire assistance grants now open
Grant applications for the Volunteer Fire Assistance program will be accepted until April 30.
The VFA program allows the South Dakota Department of Agriculture’s Wildland Fire Division to provide volunteer fire departments funding through the United States Forest Service. This funding is used to organize, train, and equip fire departments in rural areas to prevent and suppress fires.
Rural fire departments or organizations who buy fire suppression, education, and prevention equipment can be reimbursed for the cost through these grant funds.
Preference for funding will be placed this year on communication equipment to help facilitate the transition to P25 compliance which is the federally required radio hardware update.
The maximum grant this year is 50 percent of the project costs or $5,000, whichever is less. This grant can be used for either structural or wildland fire projects. Eligibility requirements, administrative considerations, parameters for uses of VFA funding and the application can be found at https://wildlandfire.sd.gov/docs/2021VFAapplication.pdf.
Once you open the form, download it to your computer. Go to the file and open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill it out. All applications must be received by mail and postmarked no later than April 30, 2020. Grants will be awarded near the middle of May.
For more information contact Casey Glines at 605-393-8011.
Nearby NuSun and High Oleic prices set new market highs at the North Dakota crush plants this week gaining 40 cents. Considering oil premiums that are offered at the crush plants on oil content above 40% at a rate of 2% price premium for each 1% of oil above 40%; this pushes a seed delivery with 45% oil content gross return 10% higher per hundredweight. A $20.95 March price increases to $23.00 with the oil premium added in. South America continues to make good harvest progress and weather conditions are favorable for producing a record soybean crop. According to the latest USDA supply and demand report released last week, South American soybean production could be a bin-buster this year. For Brazil, USDA is projecting the 2019/20 crop will reach 4.629 billion bushels. In Argentina, the crop could amount to 1.984 billion bushels. Both estimates came in higher than the average trade guess. The U.S. stockpiles of corn and soybean remain unchanged from February’s estimate, according to the USDA. Chicago Board of Trade commodity prices have been on the defensive, following financial and energy markets lower as the world braces for the potential economic ill effects of the coronavirus outbreak. The spillover weakness from a broad range of other commodities is expected to continue affecting commodity trading until the spread of the coronavirus outbreak slows and is somewhat under control.
The Kansas Junior Livestock Show will continue to host one of the state’s top youth livestock shows at the Kansas State Fairgrounds through 2023.
KJLS, Visit Hutch and the Kansas State Fairgrounds recently announced the three-year contract extension. The show has called the fairgrounds home since 2015 and has showcased thousands of youth exhibitors and their livestock.
The final show under the existing contract is Oct. 2 to 4, 2020. Future KJLS dates are Oct. 1 to 3, 2021, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 2022 and Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2023.
For more information on KJLS, including sponsorship opportunities, contact Betsy Anderson at [email protected].
