In Wisconsin’s dairy country, a 55-year-old woman sat inside her new dream home, worried she would not be able to pay her mortgage. Her loan had come from an Agriculture Department program for low-income residents in rural areas, but all the account information she needed to make her first payment was locked away in an empty government office.
And in upstate New York, Pam Moore was feeding hay to her black-and-white cows at a small dairy that tottered on the brink of ruin. She and her husband had run up $350,000 in debt to keep the dairy running after 31 of their cows died of pneumonia, and their last lifeline was an emergency federal farm loan. But the money had been derailed by the government shutdown.
Farm country has stood by President Donald Trump, even as farmers have strained under two years of slumping incomes and billions in losses from his trade wars. But as the government shutdown drags into a third week, some farmers say the loss of crucial loans, payments and other services has pushed them — and their support — to a breaking point.
While many rural conservatives may loathe the idea of Big Government, farmers and the federal government are welded together by dozens of programs and billions of dollars in spending.
Now, farmers and farm groups say federal crop payments have stopped flowing. Farmers cannot get federally backed operating loans to buy seed for their spring planting, or feed for their livestock.
Trump is expected to address a largely friendly audience Monday at the American Farm Bureau’s annual convention. Many farmers, including David Nunnery, 59, of Pike County, Mississippi, have stayed loyal to Trump and his demands for $5.7 billion for a border wall, even as the shutdown threatens their livelihood.
“I may lose the farm, but I strongly feel we need some border security,” Nunnery said.
But Davinder Singh, 41, the Georgia pecan farmer, said the border wall was not worth the price he had already paid — losing out on the chance to finally buy his own orchard instead of working other people’s land.
“Why spend money on the wall?” he said. He just wanted the government to reopen — “as soon as possible.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.