Information from the USDA’s Economic Research Service shows 65 percent of paycheck protection loans to help agriculture during the pandemic went to crop farms with the remainder going to livestock producers. University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension Ag Economist and Farm Policy Specialist Dr. Brad Lubben says the PPP was most helpful in getting cash into the hands of producers.

He says part of the reason for the difference in payout between crop farmers and livestock operators may have had to do with the tradition of government payments going to crop farmers although the PPP was through the Small Business Administration and other lenders.

Lubben says during the pandemic farms and ranches kept operating while the markets felt losses.

According to the Small Business Administration loan data, almost 121,000 farm operations applied for a total of 6 billion in PPP loans in 2020. Of that the total PPP loans paid to farm operations in 2020, $3.9 billion went to crop operations and the remaining $2.1 billion went to livestock producers.