In an ongoing effort to diversify the country’s meat processing and create new markets for smaller livestock producers, the federal government is distributing about $3.9 million of grant money and guaranteeing loans that total $5.7 million for more than two dozen projects in 15 states, including Kentucky.

Danville farmer Dennis Spencer Guinn was awarded a $161,914 Value-Added Producer Grant to expand his family’s beef operation by processing, packaging, and marketing custom retail beef cuts. The project will serve Boyle, Fayette, Jessamine and Woodford counties and result in the creation of one job, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Guinn and his wife Carly Guinn founded, own and operate Circle G Farms in Danville, where they raise beef, pork, heirloom corn, garden produce and other grains and hay, according to Circle G’s website.

“It’s getting harder and harder to make a living as a farmer, but investments like this can help bring in additional revenue,” said USDA Rural Development Kentucky State Director Tom Carew. “This is just the latest way we’re trying to reduce bottlenecks and increase opportunities for producers.”

The grants are aimed at strengthening the nation’s meat supply chain and promoting competition. Carew said that under the Biden administration, Rural Development “will continue to help build a resilient food supply chain in rural Kentucky.”

The Biden administration has dedicated billions of dollars to agricultural and food-supply initiatives to make them more climate-friendly and resilient against calamitous market disruptions, such as pandemics.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters last week, “We are just in the beginning processes of this. It takes a while, obviously, for the grant application process to go through, but we’re excited about this. We think they’re going to begin to see some results.”

Jared Strong, a reporter for the Iowa Capital Dispatch, contributed to this report.