USDA Update

By Rod Johnson

September 26, 2003

Be sure to watch the Loan Deficiency Payment (LDP) rates for corn, grain sorghum and sunflowers as we approach the fall harvest season. If you will sell the crop as soon as it leaves the field, such as silage delivered to a feed lot, or baled on shares by someone who does not have interest in the farm, sunflowers under some type of production contract, or even selling loads of grain at an elevator, you need to sign a CCC-709 LDP application before harvest. Even if you do not intend to sell the crop but want the LDP rate figured on the date you deliver the grain to an elevator, you may also sign a CCC-709. An example of when you may want to consider this is if the crop prices are inching up daily and the LDP rate is declining.

We anticipate being able to issue CRP (Conservation Reserve Program Payments) timely the first part of October. This will further delay processing of 2001/2002 Crop Disaster payments since with the CRP we can get a lot of dollars issued in a short period of time so will make that a priority.

Livestock producers may contact the Kiowa County FSA Office to file applications for the Livestock Assistance Program. If you are driving from any great distance, you may want to call ahead to make sure we haven't scheduled other appointments for the day. The deadline for signup is currently Friday, October 24, 2003. You will need to bring information on cattle and other eligible livestock you sold (number of head, weight, date of sale, etc) in 2001 and 2002. Because of the Cattle Feed and Livestock Compensation Programs, we should have other information for the 2002 calendar year on file for most producers. For 2001 you will need to bring information on the number of cattle and other eligible livestock owned or leased and separated by weight. Eligible livestock may include beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, equine and swine that are pastured.

The 2001/2002 Livestock Assistance Program will amount to little or no additional money for most Kiowa County Producers who received Livestock Compensation Program payments or Cattle Feed Program (dry milk feed) vouchers in 2002. The LAP is a nationwide program and not all counties were eligible for Livestock Compensation Program and Cattle Feed Program benefits. USDA has a limited number of dollars allocated by legislation to use for various disaster programs. Procedures are developed to provided equitable disaster assistance to producers in all states. Since Kiowa County livestock producers already received assistance under two previous programs in 2002, there will be very little additional assistance.