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Missouri cattle producer questions MDA beef and dairy grant selection process
A southern Missouri cattle producer is raising questions about the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s grant selection process after reviewing a list of recipients.
In a Conservatives for Rural Missouri Facebook post, George Sholtz said roughly a third of the awardees hold state leadership, board, government or institutional positions.
The MDA says more than 3,300 applications were received for the FY2026 beef and dairy grants. In a statement to Brownfield, the department says all applications were scored independently and without applicant name or location involved in the scoring process.
According to the MDA website, 52 total beef and dairy producer grants were awarded. Each program was allocated $1 million from the Missouri Legislature. Twenty-five went to beef farms and 27 were awarded to dairy farms.
Brownfield reviewed the list of recipients and has confirmed some awardees have served in leadership positions within Missouri agricultural organizations.
Sholtz, who operates an 80-head commercial beef operation in Texas County, applied for funding to purchase 30 replacement heifers, but was not selected for a grant.
In the social media post, Sholtz said Missouri’s eight highest cattle counties supposedly received no beef grants, while the county that received the most grants ranks 83 in cattle production in the state. He’s also concerned a state university received an award from something he understood to be from producers.
Sholtz said he is concerned the results may discourage some smaller producers from applying for future funding opportunities and wants additional information about how applications were evaluated.
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My grant proposal was rejected as well. I’m glad some research was done on winning grants and where the money landed.
I’m shocked to understand most of the money went to a lower producing single county. Hopefully MDA will provide some transparency to address questionable integrity perceptions.
I agree, I have written countless grants in my professional career. I have emailed and inquired as to what and why my grant wasn’t awarded, without response. Generally it has been my experience thy will provide some reasonable explanation on a no award situation. In my email I requested reasoning so I would have a better chance in possible future applications. No response. I requested sun shades due to the loss of any shade trees following the 2025 tornado. Gave full reasoning on loss of gain on heat stress and bringing the ability to up carrying capacity and rotation backing into the affected pastures. I would love see see the grant applications that were awarded comparison to others, including mine.