USDA Announces Over $22 Million in Mich. Rural Clean Energy Grants — But May Have to Rush Them

Nov 18, 2024

By Tracy Samilton

The USDA has announced more than $256 million in loans and grants for clean energy projects in 40 states.

Michigan farms and rural businesses will get more than $22 million — nearly 9% percent of the announced total — if the grants come through.

Sixty-nine rural businesses and farms in the state will get grants, ranging from, for example, $1 million for solar panels at the Devereax Saw Mill in Ionia County, to roughly $10,000 to help the Blue Ridge Blueberry Farm in St. Clair County upgrade its lighting and irrigation equipment.

Many of the grants are for solar arrays and roof mounted solar systems for dairy, hog, and other types of agricultural businesses.

That the grants come from the Inflation Reduction Act makes them not a complete certainty at this point.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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