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(a) The Dairy Stabilization Grant is created.
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(b)
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(1)
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(A) If funds are available, the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture shall calculate monthly the difference between the average monthly blend price of milk received by Arkansas milk producers as estimated by the secretary and seventy percent (70%) of the average monthly cost of producing milk in Missouri and Tennessee as estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture.
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(B) If the average monthly blend price of milk received by Arkansas milk producers is lower than seventy percent (70%) of the calculated average cost of producing milk in Missouri and Tennessee, the milk producer is eligible for a monthly Dairy Stabilization Grant in the amount of the difference, which will be paid quarterly. The secretary shall pay the milk producer by the fifteenth day of the month following the end of the quarter.
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(2) The secretary shall not pay a milk producer more than five dollars ($5.00) per hundred weight of milk per month under subdivision (b)(1) of this section.
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(c) Grants received by a milk producer under this section shall not exceed an annual average of two dollars ($2.00) per hundred weight of milk.
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(d) Grants authorized by the secretary shall be made to the milk producer from moneys appropriated by the General Assembly for that purpose.
