What's up at the FSA Office?

by Joyce Davidshofer, Allamakee County Executive Director

The Allamakee County Committee meeting will be held Thursday, August 21 at 9 a.m.

Reminders
April 15, 2014 – January 30, 2015 sign-up for the LIP/LFP/ELAP/TAP programs.
June 9, 2014 – September 30, 2014 – CRP Continuous CRP Sign-up 46.
November 1, 2014 – December 30, 2015 – Forage, pasture, grasses certification due for spring 2015 year. Late file fee will apply - no waivers.

ARC/PLC First Step Process
The Kansas City office has sent letters out to all landowners with their commodity acreage history for the years 2009-2012. All landowners/operators are to review the history presented in this letter.
If there are any years missing reported acres, contact the Allamakee County FSA Office.  Reasons there may be years missing are if part of the farm was sold, part of a parcel (tract) was transferred into a farm or transferred out of a farm/tract of the county and/or other situations not mentioned here.
This is the first step in for the Allamakee FSA Office to research each farm missing data. There are approximately 2102 farms in Allamakee County. This step will allow owners to update or retain the current base and yields. Bases will not be increased, but can be reallocated. There will be more information to come.
For more information, contact the Allamakee County FSA Office at 563-568-2148.

Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP)
Eligible livestock types under LFP include alpacas, beef cattle, buffalo, beefalo, dairy cattle, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, poultry, reindeer, sheep or swine that have been or would have been grazing the eligible grazing land or pastureland:
• During the normal grazing period for the specific type of grazing land or pastureland for the county, or;
• When the federal agency excluded the livestock producer from grazing the normally permitted livestock on the managed rangeland due to fire.
For grazing losses that occurred between October 1, 2011 through December 31, 2014, sign-up began April 15, 2014 and will end January 30, 2015. For 2015 and subsequent calendar years, producers must provide a completed application for payment and required supporting documentation to their FSA office within 30 calendar days after the end of the calendar year in which the grazing loss occurred.
The producer should include a copy of the grower contract if the producer is a contract grower and any other supporting documents required for determining eligibility. Supporting documents must show evidence of loss, current physical location of livestock in inventory, evidence that grazing land or pastureland is owned or leased and evidence that if the loss of grazing was due to a fire that the producer was prohibited by the federal agency from grazing the normal permitted livestock on the managed rangeland due to a fire.
Contact the Allamakee County FSA Office for more information at 563-568-2148.

Early Contract Termination Provisions - CRP
The Agricultural Act of 2014 requires that the Secretary offer producers the opportunity for an “early out” for certain CRP contracts during FY 2015, if those contracts have been in effect for at least five years. June 5, 2014 USDA announced its intent to offer “early outs.”
The “early out” option will be available to CRP participants with acreage devoted to certain practices that meet eligibility criteria. The sign-up period for CRP participants to terminate acreage under the “early out” provisions is August 6, 2014 through January 30, 2015. Effective dates for “early outs” shall be no earlier than October 1, 2014.
Contracts must be in effect for at least five years to be eligible for termination under the “early out” provisions. Only CRP contracts with effective dates of October 1, 2009 or earlier are eligible for termination under the “early out” provisions.
Contact the Allamakee County FSA Office at 563-568-2148 or stop in at 635 9th Street NW, Waukon.

Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers
The 2014 Farm Bill authorizes the Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers (MPP-Dairy), a new dairy program to replace the MILC program no later than September 1, 2014. The MPP-Dairy program is a voluntary program that provides dairy operations with risk management coverage that will pay producers when the difference between the national price of milk and the average cost of feed falls below a certain level selected by the producers in a dairy operation.
The MPP-Dairy program offers dairy producers the following:
• Catastrophic coverage, at no cost to the producer, other than an annual $100 administrative fee
• Greater coverage at various levels for a premium in addition to the $100 administrative fee.
The Allamakee County FSA office will be trained at the end of August on this new program. More information will be provided after this training.