IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

• March 15 – July 15^th - Primary Nesting Season for CRP.  No practice or management activity allowed.
• April 15, 2016 – Deadline to submit CCC-861A, ‘Request for waiver of administrative county methods for ARC-CO yields’.
• April 19 -  County Committee Meeting
• May 2-5 – FSA employees gone to training - NRCS will be available
• May 31 – Last day to request commodity loan for grain sorghum, corn and sunflowers
• July 15 - Production submission deadline for 2015 NAP crops.
• August 1 – Deadline to request farm reconstitution for 2016.
• August 1 -   2016 ARC-PLC Enrollment Deadline

U.S. Drought Monitor

As the drought is creeping back into Kiowa County (pretty sure it never left).  I thought it would be good to share the website for the Drought Monitor as it really has a lot of valuable information.

The website is as follows - http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/.  On the first page your will find a weekly update national drought summary - The Southern and Central Plains will capture Kiowa County information.  You can also view previous week’s maps to track changes in the monitor.  By clicking on the map several times – you will be able to capture a map of just Colorado.   The drought monitor is update every Thursday by 10:00 a.m.

The Kiowa County Press is also posting weekly updates about drought conditions across Colorado. All articles at KiowaCountyPress.net are free to read - no subscription or registration required.

Pray for rain - and that the drought doesn’t intensify.  The wind event on Tuesday – April 5^th was one that doesn’t need a repeat performance. 

2016 Loan Rates

USDA announced the 2016 loan rates for commodity loans and for Loan Deficiency Payments –

Wheat – $3.03 bu.

Corn - $2.10 bu.

Grain Sorghum – $3.39 cwt. 

Sunflowers - $10.97 cwt.

Producers can obtain a commodity loan based on these rates after the harvest of the crop. Loans are for 9 months and are available for farm stored or warehouse stored grain.  Warehouse stored grain must be stored in an approved elevator and producer must pay 9 months of storage in advance to the elevator.  The elevator issues a warehouse receipt which is secured at the FSA office. 

ARC-CO Physical Location Yield Option

Producers who received a postcard from USDA and also a letter from Kiowa County FSA regarding the option for 2014 and 2015 ARC- CO physical location yield option must have the form returned to the office no later than Friday, April 15^th (next Friday). 

The following options are available for farms that have land physically located in another county other than Kiowa County.  Producers have been notified.

•  2014 -all owners of the farm are required to sign a CCC-861A, ‘Request for waiver of administrative county method of determining ARC-CO eligibility’.  The 2014 payment will be recalculated using the county yield for the land and base acres for the land that is physically located in another county.  This will be weighted across the balance of the farm. 
• 2015 - all owners of the farm are required to sign a CCC-861A, ‘Request for waiver of administrative county method of determining ARC-CO eligibility’. When the 2015 ARC-CO yields are announced nationally (later this year) the FSA office will compute the ARC-CO payment based on physical location of the land.
• 2016 and future years -  all producers can initiate a FSA-179 , ‘Transfer of Farm Records’ to have the land physically located in another county transferred to the physical location FSA county office.    

Producers can choose any one option or all three of the options. 

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

Telephone 719-336-3437 (ext2) Natalie Bond; natalie.bond@co.usda.gov; Mary Rhoades, mary.rhoades@co.usda.gov

SERVICE CENTER OFFICE HOURS: 

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