USDA Update - December 21, 2018

Eads USDA Service Center Staff

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

DECEMBER 25- USDA Service Center closed
JANUARY 1- USDA Service Center closed on Tuesday - HAPPY NEW YEAR
JANUARY 8^th- FARM LOAN Personnel in Eads Service Center County Committee Meeting – TBA
JANUARY 15th– DEADLINE to apply for 2018 (LFP) Livestock Forage Program –
JANUARY 15, 2019- MFP – Market Facilitation Program– COMPLETION OF Part D of CCC-910 form signature deadline.
Continuous CRP Grassland Signup 201 –Offers being accepted - $5.00 per acre rental rate

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.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT NRCS

After over 31 years each at the Eads NRCS office, Marty Miller and Marvin Watson are retiring December 31. The intent is to fill these vacancies as soon as possible, but NRCS currently has about 30 vacant positions in Colorado. Until the Eads NRCS vacancies are filled, there will be very limited NRCS presence in the Eads USDA office. In an attempt to better utilize available staff, NRCS is implementing a realignment where management duties and staff will be shared in multiple offices. Kiowa County and Cheyenne County NRCS offices will now be one of 21 resource management teams across Colorado. Scott Smith, District Conservationist in Cheyenne Wells NRCS office, will be the acting Resource Team Leader for Eads and Cheyenne Wells NRCS offices so all questions for NRCS should be directed to Scott at 719 767-5648 Extension 105 or scott.smith@co.usda.gov.

GOODBYE TO MARVIN AND MARTY

The day the employees at Eads FSA have been dreading since they announced would be retiring at the end of 2018 has almost arrived. The start of the new year will be much different with the north side of the office mostly vacant. Each one of us have our memories of working with Marty and Marvin, we are thankful for their friendship and their assistance over the years. They have each jumped in and helped FSA in different ways when called upon.

FSA employees and Soil Conservation District Board hosted a retirement reception for them December 20, the producers, former co-workers and area NRCS employees along with friends and family joined us in wishing them a happy, healthy and very long retirement. They especially were touched by the number of people who came out to wish them well and say, ‘thank you’.

Enjoy retirement, mark items off that bucket list and enjoy life.

MARKET FACILITATION PROGRAM – SECOND PAYMENT

USDA announced that the second round of payments on the remaining half of harvested production would be issued to eligible producers. Producers who have received the first payment on half of the harvested production will automatically receive the second payment without any additional paperwork burden on the producer. Those payments are set to be issued on Wednesday, December 26th and should reach bank accounts no later than Monday, December 31^stand should be included in 2018 taxable income.

Producers who have not been paid and when are determined eligible will receive the full payment on 100% of the harvested production. Many producers have expressed to FSA they do not wish to have the income in the 2018 tax year and locally we have told producers do not submit production evidence until after January 2^nd.

IMPORTANT DEADLINE: Be reminded for MFP eligibility, Part D of the form CCC-910, must be signed and on file with the producers recording county before January 15^th. It is the producer’s responsibility to ensure the form is signed by this date as FSA has been told that late-filed provisions will not apply. All non-resident owners should be in touch with their farm operator to determine the status of completing the form. Non-resident owners can visit any USDA Service Center FSA office and complete the form. The form can also be accessed on the internet at

www.fsa.usda.gov– in the ‘search box’ type ‘910’. Complete producer name, address and contact information on the form. Sign at the bottom of Part D and return to recording county office before January 15^th. Producers have until May 15^thto complete the production information.

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