New Brunswick’s hog farmers can get advances of up to 75 per cent of their expected 2009 AgriStability payments in an expansion of the targeted advance payments (TAPs) announced earlier this year.

Eligible hog producers have access to a total of $3.3 million in TAPs for 2009, including $2.1 million offered earlier in the year and up to $1.2 million with this expansion, announced Friday by Agriculture Minister Ron Ouellette.

Producers will soon get letters advising them of the amount of advances they’ll be eligible to receive, the federal and provincial governments said in a release. The deadline to apply is Dec. 31.

“With the challenging times that New Brunswick hog farmers are facing, their need for assistance is immediate,” Ouellette said in the release Friday. “I am pleased that we are able to react quickly to provide them with the funding required to help them manage the effects of the economic downturn.”

The governments said the added TAP funding reflects a commitment they made this summer to adjust TAP payout rates based on producers’ need for further advance payments.

AgriStability, one of the business risk management programs in the federal/provincial Growing Forward ag policy framework, is meant to cushion reduced incomes by providing stabilization funds when a farmer’s margins drop below a given average.