USDA Update - July 21, 2018

Eads USDA Service Center Staff

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

COUNTY APPROVED FOR CRP EMERGENCY HAYING AND GRAZING
County Committee Nomination Deadline - August 1^st
Apply for Livestock Forage Program - Call office for appointment.
FARM LOAN Personnel in Kiowa County Service Center – Tuesday, September 11^th
FSA County Committee Meeting – July 26, 2018
2018 ARCPLC Enrollment deadline - September 30, 2018 _ EXTENSION RECEIVED
Continuous CRP Grassland Signup 201 - Currently no deadline, applications are being accepted

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

The past week some beneficial moisture was received in parts of the county. It was definitely spotty in a lot of places; some areas west of Eads received 2-4 inches and south of Eads very little if no rain was received. There are definitely areas in the county that are experiencing severe drought conditions.

WEATHER DATA

FSA and NRCS offices depend greatly on weather reporters throughout the county and are constantly in need of reliable weather data. Currently, the FSA office fields reports from National Weather Service, CoCoRAHS and other private individuals. The important thing to remember in reporting the weather is that it is a daily task. Daily reports are what is deemed reliable and accurate.

If there are any individuals that are interested in becoming weather reporters; please contact the FSA office, as there are different options available.

ARCPLC CONTRACT ENROLLMENT EXTENDED

The office received notice this week that the enrollment for 2018 ARCPLC has been extended to September 30, 2018. Kiowa County staff has nearly 90% of all ARCPLC farms already enrolled. The staff will be reaching out in the coming weeks to producers who still need to return the contract to the office.

CRP EMERGENCY HAYING AND GRAZING AVAILABLE

The office has been extremely busy fielding mostly grazing requests on CRP. Producers interested in grazing or haying CRP acreage MUSTcontact the FSA and NRCS before any activity on the CRP land. Currently, grazing is available through September 30^thand haying through August 31^st.

The office did receive notification this week that CRP grazing can occur on SAFE contracts with the exception of certain CHAT areas. However, CRP haying cannot occur in any of the Lessor Prairie Chicken area, this includes ALL General and SAFE contracts. I

There is NO PAYMENT REDUCTION to the CRP producer for the grazing or the haying. The only restriction is that the hay cannot be sold.

The NRCS and FSA offices are requesting the CRP contract holders who are allowing grazing on their contract(s); to be diligent in monitoring the grazing. If there are any violations or compliance issues due to the grazing, the CRP contract participants are responsible.

DROUGHT MONITOR & LFP

I have included two maps this week; one depicting the U.S. and one specifically for Colorado. The U.S. map shows that the severe drought is definitely in the four corners region. For Colorado the map was status quo this week, there we no major changes made for Colorado. For additional drought update details, see this article.

I had made mention in last week’s UPDATE that producers who had applied and been issued four months of payments for 2018 LFP in the designated D4 counties of Bent, Kiowa, Otero and Crowley would be issued the fifth and final month of LFP payment soon. However, after reading the handbook; to be eligible for the fifth month the county must be designated as D4 for four (non-consecutive) weeks. Kiowa was designated a D4 on July 10^th; therefore the earliest the fifth month payment could be issued would be August 1^st; if the D4 designation remains for four consecutive weeks in the county.

I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

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