DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmers already reeling from low prices and uncertainty amid the nation’s trade dispute with China are welcoming a decision to extend a deadline for federal aid because of the partial government shutdown.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday announced the Agriculture Department would extend a Jan. 15 deadline for farmers to apply for payments to offset losses they had incurred due to the trade dispute, which led to new tariffs that lessened demand and lowered crop prices. About $9.5 billion in direct payments have been set aside for growers of soybeans, corn, wheat and other commodities.

Many farmers already have received the first of two payments to offset some of their losses, but others haven’t been able to apply for aid because snow and rain delayed their harvest. Farmers can’t apply for federal payments until they can specify the size of their crop. It’s unclear how much of the federal money has been spent.

“People didn’t have time to get all this done, and then the government shutdown happened,” said John Newton, chief economist with the American Farm Bureau. “This is very, very welcome.”

Farmers can apply online for the aid, but Perdue noted they couldn’t complete the application because the USDA’s Farm Service Agency has been closed since Dec. 28. Under Perdue’s new order, the application deadline will be extended by an equal number of days to the business days the government was partially closed.

Newton said the shutdown also meant growers who had questions about the process couldn’t reach out to USDA employees.

“I’ve been waiting 19 days to get a call returned from the USDA,” Newton said.

Perdue’s announcement was welcomed by Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a farmer who earlier had said he’d seek the federal aid.

“Farmers who haven’t been able to apply for trade assistance would’ve missed the deadline through no fault of their own,” Grassley said in a statement. “It’s worth recognizing that farmers applying for assistance in the first place are hurting because of a trade war they didn’t start.”

The government shutdown comes as farmers were already enduring a fifth year of low prices even as the cost of land, fertilizer, chemicals and seed have remained high, leading to a drop in net income. As they make plans for this year’s crop, farmers have been left guessing about the market and other issues because the shutdown has forced the USDA to delay the release of crop reports providing key information about global demand.

Brian Duncan, a farmer and vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, said the trade dispute and shutdown are difficult for growers, but most are taking it in stride.

“Farmers generally are pretty level-headed and used to being thrown some curve balls,” Duncan said. “As we get closer to planting season, their patience will ebb.”

China purchased more soybeans earlier this week as the U.S. and China discussed the ongoing trade tensions between the two nations. Monday, Chinese importers purchased at least 180,000 metric tons, but some trade experts say the purchase may be closer to 900,000 metric tons, according to Reuters.

The gap in purchase size is reflected by the lack of USDA export sales reports during the government shutdown. The purchases of U.S. soybeans, an estimated five million metric tons in the current marketing year, is a fraction of the 23 million metric tons purchased by China in the previous marketing year.

China halted purchases of U.S. soybeans last year after the nation placed a tariff on U.S. soybeans in retaliation to U.S. trade policy against China. About 60 percent of all U.S. soybean exports are shipped to China every year, with most purchases made during the last three months of the year.

The Department of Agriculture has extended the deadline for producers to apply for payments under the Market Facilitation Program. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced the extension as the original deadline had been January 15, 2019, but farmers have been unable to apply for the program since the lapse in federal funding caused the closure of USDA Farm Service Agency offices at the end of business on December 28, 2018.

The deadline will extend over the period equal to the number of business days FSA offices were closed, once the government shutdown ends. Farmers who have already applied for the program and certified their 2018 production have continued to receive payments. In a statement, Perdue urged lawmakers to “redouble their efforts to pass an appropriations bill that President Trump will sign and end the lapse in funding” so USDA may again provide full services to farmers and ranchers.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to get involved in a legal dispute in which 15 states are seeking to strike down laws in California and Massachusetts that require larger living areas for some farm animals.

The attorney general’s office in Missouri, which spearheaded one of the lawsuits, vowed Tuesday to continue fighting for local farmers and consumers and said it was considering the next step.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had urged the Supreme Court not to accept original jurisdiction over the states’ lawsuits. It said the dispute over interstate commerce was best suited for a district court.

The Supreme Court didn’t cite a reason for rejecting the lawsuits in a brief order Monday, although it noted Justice Clarence Thomas would have granted the motions.

The high court on Monday also declined to hear an appeal of California’s 2004 law banning a poultry product known as foie gras, a liver delicacy made by force-feeding ducks and geese. The issue has been simmering in courts since shortly after lawmakers passed the ban, which also prohibits liver produced out of state from entering California.

The multi-state egg lawsuit against California was led by former Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, a Republican who won election as a U.S. senator in November. He was replaced as attorney general last week by former state treasurer Eric Schmitt, a fellow Republican who pledged Tuesday to continue the fight to protect farmers and consumers from “burdensome regulations.”

California voters approved a ballot initiative in 2008 requiring that caged hens spend most of their day in spaces large enough to lie down, stand up, turn around and extend their limbs. The measure gave farmers until 2015 to comply. After California egg farmers raised concerns that they would be put at a competitive disadvantage, state legislators in 2010 expanded the law to bar the sale of eggs from any hens that were not raised in compliance with California standards requiring at least 116 square inches of floor space per chicken.

The lawsuit claimed the California law cost consumers nationwide up to $350 million annually because of higher egg prices since the requirements took effect in 2015.

California voters in November approved an even more aggressive law. It will require all eggs sold in the state to come from cage-free hens by 2022. It also bans the sale of pork and veal from animals that are not raised according to new minimum living space requirements.

The other multi-state lawsuit, led by Indiana, challenged a law approved by Massachusetts voters in 2016 that requires minimum living spaces for pigs and calves and also mandates that all eggs come from cage-free hens by 2022.

Both lawsuits alleged violations of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution for effectively imposing one state’s regulatory standards on people in other states.

The states involved in both lawsuits included Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Iowa and Nevada were plaintiffs only in the lawsuit against California. South Carolina and West Virginia were plaintiffs only in the lawsuit against Massachusetts.