IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

• HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE - December 21^st 1:00 to 4:00 at Service Center.
• CRP Contract Management - Contact FSA or NRCS with questions.  Producers have been notified of required completion dates.
• County Committee Meeting – January 16^th, 2018
• NOW!! - File form CCC-633 EZ page 1 with FSA before losing beneficial interest to maintain Loan Deficiency Payment (LDP) eligibility.  (To request payments, producers need to submit page 2 of the CCC-633EZ)
• FARM LOAN Personnel in Kiowa County Service Center – 2^nd Tuesday monthly
• CRP Continuous Signup - CRP Grassland OFFERS ONLY.  Producers interested are urged to contact FSA Office. 

Disclaimer:  Information in this UPDATE is pertinent to Kiowa County FSA only.  Producers reading this and that do not have FSA interest in Kiowa County are advised to contact their local FSA Office.

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

Because we do appreciate and would like to show our appreciation to those we serve, the Eads USDA Service Center will be holding a ‘Producer and Customer Appreciation’ Holiday Open House on Thursday, December 21^st from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will be refreshments and information available on numerous USDA programs.  The USDA staff will be participating in a ‘Christmas Ugly Sweater Contest’ and those attending will be voting for the employee with the ‘Ugliest Sweater’.  Make plans to come and join us for the afternoon. 

2018 COC ELECTION RESULTS

County Committee members serve an important roles within the county to agricultural.  A few responsibilities of the COC are administering FSA programs approved for the county according to procedure, set county policies within guidelines, reviewing progress and accomplishments of the county, ensure producers and the public understand programs, along with numerous other task.

The official ballot count was conducted on December 5, 2018.  As a result, Sean Harkness of Towner was re-elected as LAA 1 COC representative and will serve another 3 year term.  Sean previously served a 3 year term and has been a great asset to the board.  We welcome Sean back to the board.

Due to fact there were changes in the current members, the 2018 Reorganization of the board was conducted after the ballot count.  Destiny (Duff) Haase will serve as chairperson and SDA representative, Sean Harkness will serve as vice-chairperson and Michael Zimmerman will serve as regular member.

Payments to Deceased Producers

In order to claim a Farm Service Agency (FSA) payment on behalf of a deceased producer, all program conditions for the payment must have been met before the applicable producer’s date of death.

If a producer earned a FSA payment prior to becoming deceased, the following is the order of precedence of the representatives of the producer:

• administrator or executor of the estate
• the surviving spouse
• surviving sons and daughters, including adopted children
• surviving father and mother
• surviving brothers and sisters
• heirs of the deceased person who would be entitled to payment according to the State law

In order for FSA to release the payment, the legal representative of the deceased producer must file a form FSA-325, to claim the payment for themselves or an estate. The county office will verify and determine that the application, contract, loan agreement, or other similar form requesting payment issuance, was signed by the applicable deadline for such form, by the deceased or a person legally authorized to act on their behalf at that time of application.

If the application, contract or loan agreement form was signed by someone other than the participant who is deceased, FSA will determine whether the person submitting the form has the legal authority to submit the form to compel FSA to pay the deceased participant.

Payments will be issued to the respective representative’s name using the deceased program participant’s tax identification number. Payments made to representatives are subject to offset regulations for debts owed by the deceased.

FSA is not responsible for advising persons in obtaining legal advice on how to obtain program benefits that may be due to a participant who has died, disappeared or who has been declared incompetent.

Kiowa County FSA Committee

• Destiny Haase -  LAA 2 – Central area – Committee Chairperson
• Sean Harkness – LAA 1 – East area – Committee Vice-Chairperson
• Michael Zimmerman – LAA3 – West area – Committee Regular Member

USDA SERVICE CENTER CONTACT INFORMATION

Telephone 719-438-5851 FSA (Ext 2), NRCS (Ext 3). FSA Fax number: fax2mail 844-332-7501

E-mail individuals firstname.lastname@co.usda.gov (Example firstname.lastname@co.usda.gov, dawna.weirich, charla.ferris, hallie.barlow, marvin.watson, marlin.miller

KIOWA COUNTY FARM LOAN CONTACT INFO – CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Telephone 719-336-3437 (ext2) Mary Rhoades, mary.rhoades@co.usda.gov

SERVICE CENTER OFFICE HOURS: 

Monday through Friday - 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Friday, by appointment only.

FSA INFORMATION

For information on programs visit our website located at www.fsa.usda.gov or like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.