The federal shutdown is having an impact on ag producers; some will get relief from the postponement of a deadline, while others will have to wait for payments they’ve been anticipating.

Leslie Miller from Iowa State Savings Bank says some farmers with a loan from the Farm Service Agency have been receiving payments for grain or cattle in the form of checks made out to FSA. But since there’s no one at the local FSA office to sign off on these checks, they can’t be deposited and the recipients can’t get the funds they need to pay bills right now.

Meanwhile, Miller says farmers who are in financial straits can’t apply for a loan; the bank needs concurrence from FSA on all guaranteed loans, but can’t get it because no one from FSA is available. So decisions on loan applications are being put on hold, and more bills are going unpaid.

On the other hand, some ag producers held off on signing up for market facilitation payments until January, because they didn’t want the income declared on their taxes for 2018. The original deadline was January 15th; but the agency announced Wednesday that the deadline will be extended by one day for each day the government is shut down.