The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week that $1.5 million in competitive grant funding is available for the Dairy Business Innovation (DBI) Initiatives. DBI Initiatives are authorized through the 2018 farm bill and support USDA’s efforts to reduce risk and develop higher-value uses for dairy products, diversify farmer income through processing and marketing innovation and encourage the use of regional milk production.

The DBI Initiatives are expected to provide direct technical assistance and make grants to dairy businesses. USDA said initiatives must be positioned to draw on existing dairy industry resources, including dairy farm density and farmland suitability for dairying as well as activities conducted by dairy promotion and research programs, research organizations, dairy businesses or academic and industry stakeholders.

Initiatives may also serve a certain product niche, such as specialty cheese, or serve dairy businesses with dairy products derived from the milk of a specific type of dairy animal, including from cows, sheep and goats.

Applications must be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov by June 17, 2019.