Iowa farmers await USDA payments for their corn stover

Des Moines Register
11:26 PM, Jan. 19, 2011
Written by DAN PILLER

Cylinder, Ia. — Jeff Berkland and more than 80 other northwest Iowa farmers have learned that it's easier and faster to bale corncobs, leaves and stalks after harvest for ethanol production than it is to get the government to pay for it.

"They told me I'd have my money by Nov. 1 and I still don't have it," said Berkland, 53, last week as he stood by one of several groups of corn stover bales on his 1,800-acre farm west of Algona.

Berkland was supposed to get $40.24 per ton from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its Biomass Conversion Facility program, or BCAP.

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