USDA Update

By Rod Johnson

January 9, 2004

Happy New Year! Lots of challenges face agriculture but we will survive and recover. We always have. That is one of the great strengths of America; we find a way to persevere. The USDA Service Center Staff in Eads is here to help you in these tough times. We know there is LOTS of paperwork with some of the programs. We don’t like it any better than you do. Just remember you only have to keep track of the records on your farming operation. We get to keep track of all farm records in the county. Use these next few weeks, when things are a little slower, to update and improve your recordkeeping system. Accurate record keeping is the absolute best thing you can do to help us serve you better and get payments issued in a timely manner.

NRCS has received the 2004 EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentive Program) schedule. The final date for applications for the 2004 EQIP will be February 6, 2004. The target date for notification of contract approval or deferral is May 21, 2004. These dates are contingent upon the EQIP funding allocation, which has not been finalized by Congress. NRCS is using a new software system for entering applications and contracts this year, so there may be some unexpected problems with this new system. We have not seen the final EQIP policy for 2004, but it appears that the cost share rate may decrease from 75% to 60% this year.

We have numerous payments to get issued now that we are in 2004. We will first issue 2003 Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance (NAP) payments for native grass losses. Next we will issue 2001/2002 Crop Disaster Assistance payments that were requested to be made after January 1. Finally we will issue 2004 advance Direct payments under the DCP (Direct and Counter Cyclical Program). We should have the majority of payments issued by the end of January.

The interest rate for commodity loans requested in January 2004 is 2.375 percent per annum. Commodity loans are available on 2003 crop wheat, oats, barley and canola until March 31, 2004. Loans on 2004 crop grain sorghum, corn, sunflower seed and soybeans are available until May 31, 2004. The interest rate for farm storage facility loans