USDA Update

By Rod Johnson

September 12, 2003

Everyone at the USDA Service Center hopes you can take a few minutes to relax and enjoy the Kiowa County Fair. Farm Bureau will have an interesting booth at the Fair. Take time to stop by and learn some interesting facts about agriculture. You can become eligible to win a drawing for cash ($50, $100 or $200) if you can correctly answer questions on the Farm Bill Portion of the Federal Budget. Only 1% of the recent Federal Budget was allocated to Agriculture. Of that 1% only 18% was actually allocated for commodities. You may want to remember these figures when you visit their booth.

The FSA Office is continuing to make 2001/2002 Crop Disaster Program (CDP) payments. We think we have the initial work completed on farms for most of our operators in the county. We have tried to call all operators when their applications are ready to review or sign. If you are an operator of farm(s) that will qualify for the CDP and have not been contacted by the office, please give us a call so we can check on the status of your records. In the next few weeks, we hope to wrap up work with farm operators and will begin processing owners.

The FSA Office is also beginning preparations of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts for the annual payments to be issued in October. October is also the month when FSA can begin issuing the second half of the 2003 Direct payments under the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP). In October, the Secretary of Agriculture will also announce if there will be an advance available for 2003 Counter-cyclical payments. Counter-cyclical payments are based on the projected national average market price of each crop for the marketing year. The marketing year for wheat and barley is June 1, 2003 through May 31, 2004. Corn, grain sorghum and sunflowers have a marketing year that begins October 1, 2003 and ends September 30, 2004. Remember with Counter-cyclical payments, if you take an advance payment and the final payment is less than the advance, the overpayment will need to be refunded.

Changes to shares or any other revisions to CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) contracts must be completed and approved by FSA no later than September 30, 2003 to be effective for the annual payments scheduled to be issued in October. If you have sold or purchased CRP land or have had a change in payment shares, please contact the FSA Office as soon as possible.

Sometime in October or November, the FSA Office will begin making farm folders for the 2004 Direct and Counter-cyclical Program signup. If you have had changes in farm ownership, operatorship or leases, please provide that information to the FSA Office as soon as possible so we can get our basic records changed.

It appears the 2001/2002 Livestock Assistance Program (LAP) will amount to very low or no additional payments for Kiowa County livestock producers. Although we have taken virtually no applications, reports from other counties who have been able to take signup are not encouraging. The LAP signup continues through October 24, 2003. We will be contacting producers in the next few weeks to take applications.