USDA Update - April 28, 2018

Eads USDA Service Center

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

PRIMARY NESTING SEASON - March 15^th- July 15 - NO CRP Contract Management ALLOWED
FARM LOAN Personnel in Kiowa County Service Center – Tuesday, May 8^th
FSA County Committee Meeting – June 5^th
CRP Continuous Signup - CRP Grassland OFFERS ONLY. Producers interested are urged to contact FSA Office. 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)
2018 ARCPLC Enrollment deadline - August 1, 2018

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.

MOISTURE

It was good to see some rain on the 20^th, to settle the dirt. It seemed to have helped the condition of the winter wheat, however of course the area will need additional moisture as it’s a long time until harvest. The 10-day forecast doesn’t have our area receiving any moisture, but the temp’s are in the 70’s.

CORN PLANTING DATE

Reminder to producers planting corn in Kiowa County, RMA (Risk Management Agency) extended the final plant date for Kiowa County to May 31 beginning for 2018 crop year, the previous final plant date was May 25.

DROUGHT IMPACTS

As Kiowa County is diverse in soils and weather conditions, producers are urged to report drought impacts and those impacts are reviewed by the Drought Monitor Author and the employees at the Colorado Climate Center. Producers can report their impacts at http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/submitreport, users can click on the ‘new report’, type in address, or use county name, there are eight questions, and however answers to all questions are not required.

Another website to report drought impacts is https://cocorahs.org/Maps/conditionmonitoring/, however producers reporting on this site must be CoCoRaHS volunteers. Producers who are not volunteers and would like more information about becoming one, contact Karen or Jeramy at the Kiowa County Extension Office. The important item to remember about being a CoCoRaHS volunteer is that consistent reporting must occur. Only reporting when it does rain, is not considered consistent reporting.

More information about this week's drought conditions is available in this KiowaCountyPress.net article.

APRIL PLC RATES

The 2017 Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments for producers who elected PLC will not be issued until October. However, the marketing year for wheat, barley and oats will end May 31^st. On April 10^thFSA received an updated projection for 2017 PLC payments. Barley and grain sorghum, lost 5 cents from March t0 April, all other crops remained the same. The projected PLC payment rates currently are:

Wheat - .85 bu.
Barley - .45 bu.
Oats – zero
Corn - .35 bu.
Grain Sorghum - .75 bu.
Sunflowers - .0265 cwt.

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