USDA Update – October 20, 2020

Eads USDA Service Center Staff

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

2018 WHIP+ deadline - October 30, 2020
CRP EMERGENCY GRAZING and HAYING – 30-DAY NO GRAZING HAS BEEN WAIVED FOR 2020. FSA OFFICES CAN ACCEPT NEW REQUESTS FOR HAYING AND GRAZING UNTIL DECEMBER 31, 2020
CFAP2 SIGNUP - DEADLINE DECEMBER 11, 2020 – Call and schedule your appointment.
2021 NAP GRASS APPLICATION DEADLINE - December 1, 2020
2021 ARCPLC signup – begins October 13 - ends March 15, 2021
LFP – Signup ends January 30, 2021

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.

2018 WHIP+ DEADLINE

The office received notification last week that USDA has established an application deadline of October 30, 2020 for 2018 WHIP+ for excessive moisture and drought losses. The office has received numerous phone calls regarding the program and producer eligibility.

Here in Kiowa County, the office had begun preliminary work on producers’ applications and the FSA office will be placing all producers with 2018 crop insurance or NAP losses on a register, which will allow producers to sign the applications past the October 30, 2020 deadline.

However, we want to remind producers that the 2018 WHIP+ program producer eligibility is based on administrative FSA county not FSA recording county.

Example: Producer Bob has 2018 FSA interests in both Kiowa and Pueblo Colorado counties. Producer Bob must contact both the Kiowa and Pueblo county offices to apply.

We encourage all producers to view the information regarding WHIP+ program and all other FSA programs on www.Farmers.gov. There is a complete listing of counties which are eligible for 2018 WHIP + for excessive moisture and drought and also 2019 crop year for excessive moisture. Currently, Kiowa County is only eligible for 2018 WHIP+ due to the drought.

Producers must take the initiative and do their own homework regarding FSA programs; many offices are short staffed and have heavy workload. It technically is the producer’s responsibility to contact their FSA office and make an appointment for approaching deadlines. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

OCTOBER PAYMENTS

The 2019 ARCPLC and 2020 CRP annual rental payments have been issued. The 2019 ARCPLC payments were sent to accounts the first week of October, the majority of the 2020 CRP annual rental payments left the office October 15 and should be in accounts October 19 or 20. Producers who are missing either payment should contact the office.

CFAP 2

The office is in the process of approving the CFAP 2 applications that producers have signed and have been approved for payment. Those payments should be leaving the office later this week.

In visiting with producers, I’m not sure FSA is reaching the producers we need to or possibly the producers aren’t understanding that the CFAP 2 program IS NOT similar and not a continuation of the original CFAP program.

The CFAP 2 program is a completely different program.

For example -

CFAP or CFAP 1 was the program that began back at the end of May and paid eligible producers on livestock and 2019 production still in storage or on the farm. Signup for that program ended September 11^th. There were two payments issued, the first being 80% of the total and later FSA issued the remaining 20% payment.
CFAP 2 is the current Coronavirus Food Assistance Program and eligible producers can receive an additional payment, based on 2020 livestock inventory (excluding breeding stock) and 2020 planted acres of most crops with the exception of grazing crops and sorghum forage. Eligible producers can earn $52.00 per head of eligible livestock and a minimum of $15.00 per acre of eligible planted 2020 crops.

Below is a better description of eligible livestock and crops. The deadline to complete an application for CFAP 2 is December 11. Producers will complete one application in their designated recording county FSA Office.

all classes of wheat - for CFAP, only production of 2019 durum wheat was eligible, with CFAP 2 planted acres for 2020 for all classes of wheat are eligible.
Prevented planted acres are not eligible on any 2020 crop.
Breeding stock for hogs, cattle and sheep are INELIGIBLE for CFAP 2. - Definition from CFAP handbook - breeding stock is defined as the following and therefore NOT ELIGIBLE:
Cattle - cows and bulls
Pigs – boars and sows
Lambs - rams and ewes
Price Trigger Commodities - the acre and yield information will automatically autofill from FSA’s database which will make submitting a completed signed application not possible.
Flat rate crops - crops that either do not meet the 5% price decline trigger or do not have data available to calculate a price change. There are a number of crops eligible for the $15.00 an acre flat rate payment; however I’m only going to list the crops that would be planted in this area, alfalfa, hemp, millet and triticale. For a complete listing of crops and more information on all FSA programs visit www.farmers.gov website.

2021 ARCPLC ENROLLMENT

Enrollment for the 2021 ARCPLC program began October 13 and will end on March 15, 2021. Producers with farm operator, ownership changes effective for 2021 will be required to complete a 2021 ARCPLC enrollment. Producers who also wish to change the election on existing farms have the same deadline. Beginning in 2021, election changes can be done yearly through 2023, that was a change in the 2018 Farm Bill.

Stayed tuned, next week the UPDATE will have some information regarding PLC vs. ARC-CO for 2021 year.