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, April 10^th
• County Committee Meeting – April 24^th  
• FINAL DATE FOR 2017 WHEAT MARKETING ASSISTANCE LOAN REQUEST -  March 31^st 
• 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.

WIND

Sitting in the office on Friday afternoon writing the UDPATE, and the wind is howling and the temperature is nearing 80 degrees.  Dry conditions, high winds along with high temperature is not a good mixture.  In looking at the forecast for next week there are days with a high chance for moisture; hopefully that holds true. 

NEW WEBSITE

Farmers.gov is a new website which is streamlines, single point of online access to agricultural programs and information, tool and personal advice for farmers and ranchers.  The following USDA agencies are located on the website Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and Risk Management Agency (RMA); click on the emblem on the website and you will directed to the agencies home page.  There is also a local service center locator on the farmers.gov homepage to assist producers in locating the closest USDA Local Service Center. 

There is also a ‘blog’ page with conservation, farming and technology categories. 

The website is fairly new and will have updates regularly, currently new features being initiated include:

• Program descriptions with an interactive requirements tool
• Customer and mobile-friendly digital forms
• Calendar of local events and program due dates

            And much more- stay tuned. 

U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR

There weren’t any changes to SE Colorado on this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor, changes did occur on the western slope with expansion of D2 and D3 designations. Statewide details can be found in this KiowaCountyPress.net 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

KIOWA COUNTY FARM LOAN CONTACT INFO – CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Telephone 719-336-3437 (ext2) Mary Rhoades, mary.rhoades@co.usda.gov

SERVICE CENTER OFFICE HOURS: 

Monday through Friday - 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Friday, by appointment only.

FSA INFORMATION

For information on programs visit our website located at www.fsa.usda.gov or like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.