What's Up at the FSA Office?

by Jeremy Leitz, Allamakee County Executive Director (563) 568-2148

Allamakee County FSA is Hiring!
Our office is currently accepting applications for a permanent Program Technician position. The individual selected will be responsible for carrying out general office activities and technical functions pertaining to FSA administered programs. Applicants should possess excellent human relations skills as well as strong clerical and computer skills. A general knowledge of agricultural practices would also be beneficial.

You can read the full vacancy announcement with application requirements at usajobs.gov. Vacancy announcement number is IA-2019-0003. If you have any questions or would like more information, please call (563.-568-2148) or stop by our office.

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Payments
CRP payments are currently being issued. Payments began on October 2 for those contracted prior to 2008. For CRP contracts that began after the 2008 Farm Bill, payments will be issued starting approximately October 11. Remember that these take a few days to be deposited into your account.

ARC/PLC Payments
We also began issuing payments for the Agricultural Risk Coverage/Price Loss Coverage program, more commonly known as ARC/PLC. Allamakee County did receive an ACR-CO payment of $0.50 per base acre of soybeans. However, no ARC payments were received for corn. For those producers who selected the PLC option, corn will pay $0.34 an acre. No PLC payments were received for beans. These payments are calculated on 85% of base acres, also incur a sequestration cost of just over 6%, and are for the 2017 crop year. These also take a few days to show in your account. 

CRP Mid-Contract Management (MCM)
Some CRP contract holders will receive a packet of information detailing the activities that need to be completed in FY18. You can begin those activities as early as October 1, 2018. However, all activities need to be completed by May 14, 2019 unless otherwise indicated on your forms. Please stop in or call if you have any questions. We plan on holding an MCM on November 15 for those interested in receiving more information. Details will be posted as the date nears. 

Market Facilitation Program (MFP)
The MFP signup period will run through January 15, 2019, and you are encouraged to apply after harvest is 100% complete. We recommend you bring production evidence with you when you apply. Payments will be issued on 50% of the production multiplied by the MFP rate for the specific commodity. 

Payments have been issued for some dairy producers as their production evidence has come from the MPP program. Hog payments were previously based on inventory as of August 1, 2018. However, a recent change expanded that time to include inventory between July 15, 2018 and August 15, 2018. Producers may select any date between that range as the date for which ownership is reported. If you are a hog producer who has already completed their application for a hog payment using your August 1 inventory, you can stop back in and revise that figure if it was not indicative of the usual number of hogs in your operation. So if you have hogs or a dairy operation and not signed your application, stop in soon to do so.

Visit Farmers.gov for more information on the Market Facilitation Program.