Cheques will be in the mail in the next few days to about 30,000 Ontario farmers qualifying for $55 million in funding through that province’s Cost Recognition Top-Up program, the government reported today.

The program, first announced June 8 and to be delivered by Agricorp, is a 40 per cent-matching provincial contribution to the $400 million federal cost of production payment program. The province pointed out in a release that it’s the only provincial government participating in the program on a cost-share basis.

The deadline to apply for the federal cost of production payment, based on 2.36 per cent of a farm’s net sales, was September 1. The federal program was announced in the government’s last budget.