What's Up at the USDA Office?

Upcoming Deadlines/Dates
October 31: Deadline to apply for Organic Certified Cost Share Program (OCCSP)
November 4: COC ballots mailed to LAA 3 Producers
November 11: Office closed in observance of Veterans Day
November 28: Office closed in observance of Thanksgiving
November 29: Deadline to apply for the Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program (ODMAP)
December 2: Deadline to return COC ballots to FSA Office
December 15: Deadline to certify fall-seeded crops - Note: Although cover crops can be reported at any time, we encourage you to do it this fall (2024)

Meet Local Administrative Area (LAA) 3’s County Committee Nominees!
LAA 3 covers the townships of Iowa, Lansing, Center, Lafayette, Paint Creek, and Taylor. This year the nomination period ended as of August 1, 2024, and we are fortunate to have four great nominees running and willing to serve on our Allamakee County FSA Committee board (COC). The following is a short synopsis of each nominee and their background in Allamakee County.
Our first nominee is Kim Welsh. Kim is currently serving in the last year of her original 3-year term as a member of the Allamakee COC and seeking re-election. Kim and her husband Gary Welsh have been actively involved in agriculture since 1983 in Center Township. They have been an organic farm since its inception and take deep pride in the agricultural products they produce. The family farm they’ve created is diversified with raising beef cattle, custom raising pullets and laying hens, finishing out hogs, and having row crops. Kim retired from being a Farm Loan Program Technician for FSA after 30 years of service in 2020. Along with her farming background Kim is an active volunteer for the local food shelf and VITA.
Our next nominee is Lynn Reburn. Lynn and her husband Tom have been farming in Iowa Township in Allamakee County for the last 40+ years on their heritage farm that dates back over 150 years to 1866. Currently Lynn and Tom raise beef cattle and have a row crop operation. Lynn works at Murphy Roverud Law office working with taxes and probate. When she isn’t at work or farming, she serves as the Clerk for the Upper Iowa River Drainage District and has served on the Iowa State Extension Council in the past.
Up next is Terry Oesterle. Terry and his wife Diane operated a dairy farm in Paint Creek Township for years along with a row crop operation until they retired. During their time farming they milked 40 cows and raised all their own replacements while operating about 350 acres of row crops. Since retirement they’ve put some ground into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) along with renting the balance out. Terry has been a Farm Bureau member for 45 years, served as a trustee for Paint Creek Twp in the past and also currently, along with sitting on the board of Directors for Acentek Communications for 21 years, which he has just retired from.    
Finally, our last nominee is Shane Gavin. Shane and his wife Beth, along with their three children, Weston, Wyatt, and Wrenley, farm in Lafayette Township in Allamakee County. Shane and his family have been running a beef cattle operation and row crops since 2012. Shane is a 2010 graduate from Lansing High School and a 2014 Iowa State University graduate with a major in Ag Systems Technology and a minor in Agronomy. Currently Shane is serving as the Allamakee County Cattleman Association’s president.
All of our nominees are wanting and willing to serve Allamakee County’s agricultural producers to the best of their ability. Ballots will be mailed to this voting district starting November 4th and are due back by December 2. We wish each nominee the best of luck!

Obtaining Payments Due to Deceased Producers
In order to claim a Farm Service Agency (FSA) payment on behalf of a deceased producer, all program conditions for the payment must have been met before the applicable producer’s date of death.
If a producer earned an FSA payment prior to his or her death, the following is the order of precedence for the representatives of the producer:
• administrator or executor of the estate
• the surviving spouse
• surviving sons and daughters, including adopted children
• surviving father and mother
• surviving brothers and sisters
• heirs of the deceased person who would be entitled to payment according to the State law.

For FSA to release the payment, the legal representative of the deceased producer must file a form FSA-325 to claim the payment for themselves or an estate. The county office will verify that the application, contract, loan agreement, or other similar form requesting payment issuance, was signed by the applicable deadline by the deceased or a person legally authorized to act on their behalf at that time of application.
If the application, contract or loan agreement form was signed by someone other than the deceased participant, FSA will determine whether the person submitting the form has the legal authority to submit the form.
Payments will be issued to the respective representative’s name using the deceased program participant’s tax identification number. Payments made to representatives are subject to offset regulations for debts owed by the deceased.
FSA is not responsible for advising persons in obtaining legal advice on how to obtain program benefits that may be due to a participant who has died, disappeared or who has been declared incompetent.

USDA Offers $58 Million in Available Assistance to Help Organic Dairy Producers Cover Increased Costs
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $58 million available for assistance to dairy producers through the Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program (ODMAP) 2024. ODMAP 2024 helps mitigate market volatility, higher input and transportation costs, and unstable feed supply and prices that have created unique hardships in the organic dairy industry. Specifically, through ODMAP 2024, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is assisting organic dairy operations with projected marketing costs in 2024 calculated using their marketing costs in 2023. FSA will begin accepting ODMAP 2024 applications on Sept. 30. Eligible producers include certified organic dairy operations that produce milk from cows, goats, and sheep. 

ODMAP 2024 Program
Improvements
Dairy producers who participate in ODMAP 2024 will benefit from improvements to provisions outlined in the program. Specifically, ODMAP 2024 provides for an increase in the payment rate to $1.68 per hundredweight compared to the previous $1.10 per cwt. Additionally, the production cap has increased to nine million pounds compared to the previous five million pounds.

How ODMAP 2024 Works  
FSA is providing financial assistance for a producer’s projected marketing costs in 2024 based on their 2023 costs. ODMAP 2024 provides a one-time cost-share payment based on marketing costs on pounds of organic milk marketed in the 2023 calendar year or estimated 2024 marketing costs for organic dairy operations that have increased milk production.  
ODMAP 2024 provides financial assistance that immediately supports certified organic dairy operations during 2024 keeping organic dairy operations sustainable until markets return to more normal conditions.  

How to Apply  
FSA is accepting applications from Sept. 30 to Nov. 29. To apply, producers should contact FSA at their local USDA Service Center. To complete the ODMAP 2024 application, producers must certify to pounds of 2023 milk production, show documentation of their organic certification, and submit a completed application form.  Organic dairy operations are required to provide their USDA certification of organic status confirming operation as an organic dairy in 2024 and 2023 along with the certification of 2023 milk production or estimated 2024 milk production in hundredweight.    
ODMAP 2024 complements other assistance available to dairy producers, including Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC), with more than $36 million in benefits paid for the 2024 program year to date.  Learn more on the FSA Dairy Programs webpage.   

More Information  
To learn more about USDA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center. Producers can also prepare maps for acreage reporting as well as manage farm loans and other programs by logging into their farmers.gov account. If you don’t have an account, sign up today.