PROMO 660 x 440 Agriculture USDA Service Center Update

USDA Update

USDA Service Center Staff

By Eads USDA Service Center

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

March 15 – July 15^th - Primary Nesting Season for CRP. No practice or management activity allowed.
May 17^th – Kiowa County Committee meeting
May 31 – Last day to request commodity loan for 2015 grain sorghum, corn and sunflowers
July 15^th - Production submission deadline for 2015 NAP crops.
July 15^th - Acreage reporting deadline for planted spring crops and CRP
August 1 – Deadline to request farm reconstitution or farm transfer for 2016.
August 1 - 2016 ARC-PLC Enrollment Deadline
August 1 - County Committee Nomination Deadline - LAA 3 – west end

Unacceptable CRP Offers

Producers have been informed of the status of the recent CRP signup #49 offer. Producers with CRP contracts that will expire 9-30-2016 do have some options.

Allow the contract to expire – grazing can begin October 1^st. Grazing the land does not make the land ineligible for future CRP signups – however the land must be maintained as if in CRP. Don’t overgraze it!
Prepare the land for a crop – The land will lose previous cropping history; clock for CRP eligibility will start over.
- Contact NRCS to complete a plan of operations to maintain eligibility.
- Contact FSA for early- out provisions.

Offer the land into a Continuous CRP program - Kiowa County has two continuous CRP programs
- Lesser Prairie Chicken (SAFE) - 10 year contracts. Land MUST be in the specified area to be eligible.
- HELI (Highly Erodible Land Initiative) - Eligibility is based on NRCS rating of erodibility of the soil.

As always, producer with questions should contact the FSA office.

Changing Administrative Counties

Producers who wish to transfer their farm records to a different administrative county for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 must file a request no later than August 1, 2016. Restrictions do apply when transferring to an office other than the county in which the land is physically located. Contact your local FSA office for more information.

Final Planting Dates

All producers are encouraged to contact their local FSA office for more information on the final planting date for specific crops. The final planting dates vary by crop, planting period and county so please contact your local FSA office for a list of county-specific planting deadlines. The timely planting of a crop, by the final planting date, may prevent loss of program benefits.

Kiowa County final plant dates are the following

Corn – May 25^th

Grain Sorghum & Sunflowers – June 20^th

Proso Millet – June 25^th

Winter Wheat – October 15^th

CRP Payment Limitation

Payments and benefits received under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) are subject to the following:

payment limitation by direct attribution
foreign person rule
average adjusted gross income (AGI) limitation

The 2014 Farm Bill continued the $50,000 maximum CRP payment amount that can be received annually, directly or indirectly, by each person or legal entity. This payment limitation includes all annual rental payments and incentive payments (Sign-up Incentive Payments and Practice Incentive Payments). Annual rental payments are attributed (earned) in the fiscal year in which program performance occurs. Sign-up Incentive Payments (SIP) are attributed (earned) based on the fiscal year in which the contract is approved, not the fiscal year the contract is effective. Practice Incentive Payments (PIP) are attributed (earned) based on the fiscal year in which the cost-share documentation is completed and the producer or technical service provider certifies performance of practice completion to the county office.

Such limitation on payments is controlled by direct attribution.

Program payments made directly or indirectly to a person are combined with the pro rata interest held in any legal entity that received payment, unless the payments to the legal entity have been reduced by the pro rata share of the person.
Program payments made directly to a legal entity are attributed to those persons that have a direct and indirect interest in the legal entity, unless the payments to the legal entity have been reduced by the pro rata share of the person.
Payment attribution to a legal entity is tracked through four levels of ownership. If any part of the ownership interest at the fourth level is owned by another legal entity, a reduction in payment will be applied to the payment entity in the amount that represents the indirect interest of the fourth level entity in the payment entity.

Essentially, all payments will be “attributed” to a person’s Social Security Number. Given the current CRP annual rental rates in many areas, it is important producers are aware of how CRP offered acreages impact their $50,000 annual payment limitation. Producers should contact their local FSA office for additional information.

NOTE: The information in the above article only applies to contracts subject to 4-PL and 5-PL regulations. It does not apply to contacts subject to 1-PL regulations.

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