USDA Update - June 30, 2018

Eads USDA Servicer Center Staff

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

2018 SPRING ACREAGE REPORTING DEADLINE - July 15^th
JULY 5^th– FINAL DATE TO REPORT PREVENT PLANT FOR SORGHUM & SUNFLOWERS
PRIMARY NESTING SEASON - March 15^th- July 15 - NO CRP Contract Management ALLOWED
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, July 10^th
FSA County Committee Meeting – TBA
2018 ARCPLC Enrollment deadline - August 1, 2018
Continuous CRP Grassland Signup 201 - Currently no deadline, apply any time.

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.

UPDATE- EMERGENCY HAYING & GRAZING CRP – HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED

The FSA Office hasnotreceived any ‘official’ notification for the CRP Emergency Haying and Grazing (EM&G) request to allow haying and grazing on CRP acres priorto July 15^th. The COC has sent a request to the State Office for the county to be approved afterthe Primary Nesting Season which will be Monday, July 16^th. The office received notification the State Committee will be reviewing those requests the week of July 9^th.

Currently, FSA and NRCS are urging producers who are interested in the CRP EM&G to put their names on the list @ FSA. Be reminded, paperwork at NRCS and FSA MUSTbe approved before any activity can begin. We are encouraging producers to get their name on the list, so that when authorization comes, you are ready to begin.

Again,Emergency Haying and Grazing of CRP HAS NOT BEEN approved. Any grazing or haying prior to authorization will be considered unauthorized, payment penalties and possible terminations of the contract can occur.

LIVESTOCK FORAGE PROGRAM

The FSA office is currently taking application for the Livestock Forage Program (LFP). The program provides compensation to eligible livestock producers that have suffered grazing losses because of drought. The county is currently paying 4 months payment based on the lesser of the livestock monthly feed cost or the carrying capacity monthly feed cost.

The office has issued a few payments and will be issuing more this next week. If you have grazing land and livestock, visit the FSA office to determine if you qualify for assistance.

REPORTING PLANTED AND PREVENT PLANTED ACREAGE

PLANTED ACRES

Deadline for 2018 acreage reporting for spring planted crops is Monday, July 16^th. In recent years, ACRSI (Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative with FSA and Risk Management Agency (RMA) was implemented between FSA and RMA, however it has not been as successful as hoped. Below is the requirement for acreage reporting,

Producers doing business with both FSA and RMA will report their 2018 spring-planted crops to either FSA or their crop insurance agent, and the data will be shared electronically in near real time between FSA and RMA. Data will only be shared with the crop insurance agent if a crop insurance policy is in force for an approved ACRSI crop. Producers will still be required to visit both agencies to validate the data, certify by signing the reports, and complete a map for FSA.

PREVENTED PLANTING

The deadline to report prevented planting acreage for sunflowers and grain sorghum is Thursday, July 5^th. Acreage reports claiming prevented planting received after July 5^th, will incur a late-filed fee of $46.00 per farm.

DROUGHT MONITOR

There were changes made to the Drought Monitor this past week. A very small portion of southern Lincoln and El Paso counties were moved to a D3 category.

Producers who don’t necessarily agree with the depiction of the drought monitor are urged to go the website - http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/map/, click on ‘submit a report, new report and complete the report. The drought authors rely heavily on the impact reports to be certain drought conditions are correct for the area.

More information about drought conditions across Colorado can be found in this article.

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