Important Announcements & Deadlines
Thank you for reading another edition of the Terry County USDA News Bulletin. We have a few important announcements to share with you.
- The County Office will be CLOSED 12/26/22 & 01/02/2023 in lieu of the Christmas & New Year’s holidays.
- Livestock producers who have incurred additional feed transportation costs, water transportation costs or livestock transportation costs due to the drought are encouraged to visit the Terry County FSA Office to file a notice of loss for the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP).
Important Dates:
December 14, 2022 – Deadline to submit application for payment on pumpkins covered under NAP.
December 16, 2022 – Deadline to submit application for Emergency Relief Program Phase One.
January 15, 2023 – Deadline to report small grains and grapes on the FSA-578 acreage report.
January 30, 2023 – Deadline to apply for 2022 Livestock Forage Program (LFP).
January 30, 2023 – Deadline to apply for 2022 Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP).
NRCS Announces EQIP-CIC Sign-Up for Fiscal Year 2023
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Texas is announcing the Fiscal Year 2023 funding signup for Conservation Incentive Contracts (CIC), a new option available through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP).
EQIP-CIC expands resource benefits for Texas producers through incentive conservation practices such as wildlife management, cover crops, nutrient management, conservation crop rotations, and prescribed grazing. Additionally, EQIP-CIC allows producers to target priority resource concerns on their property by offering incentive payments for a five-year contract without needing to enroll the entire operation into the program. EQIP-CIC is designed to be a stepping-stone between EQIP and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), to help producers improve their level of conservation and earn benefits of longer-term conservation enhancements.
While applications for EQIP are accepted throughout the year, interested producers should submit applications to their local NRCS office by Jan. 6, 2023 for EQIP-CIC, to be considered for the 2023 ranking funding period.
Before You Break Out New Ground, Ensure Your Farm Meets Conservation Compliance
The term “sodbusting” is used to identify the conversion of land from native vegetation to commodity crop production after December 23, 1985. As part of the conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985, if you’re proposing to produce agricultural commodities (crops that require annual tillage including one pass planting operations and sugar cane) on land that has been determined highly erodible and that has no crop history prior to December 23, 1985, that land must be farmed in accordance with a conservation plan or system that ensures no substantial increase in soil erosion.
Eligibility for many USDA programs requires compliance with a conservation plan or system on highly erodible land (HEL) used for the production of agricultural commodities. This includes Farm Service Agency (FSA) loan, disaster assistance, safety net, price support, and conservation programs; Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation programs; and Risk Management Agency (RMA) Federal crop insurance.
Before you clear or prepare areas not presently under production for crops that require annual tillage, you are required to file Form AD-1026 “Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certification,” with FSA indicating the area to be brought into production. The notification will be referred to NRCS to determine if the field is considered highly erodible land. If the field is considered HEL, you are required to implement a conservation plan or system that limits the erosion to the tolerable soil loss (T) for the predominant HEL soil on those fields.
In addition, prior to removing trees or conducting any other land manipulations that may affect wetlands, remember to update form AD-1026, to ensure you remain in compliance with the wetland conservation provisions.
Prior to purchasing or renting new cropland acres, it is recommended that you check with your local USDA Service Center to ensure your activities will be in compliance with the highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions.
For additional information on highly erodible land conservation and wetland conservation compliance, contact your local USDA Service Center.
USDA Provides Payments of nearly $800 Million in Assistance to Help Keep Farmers Farming
USDA announced that distressed borrowers with qualifying USDA farm loans have already received nearly $800 million in assistance, as part of the $3.1 billion in assistance for distressed farm loan borrowers provided through Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA directed USDA to expedite assistance to distressed borrowers of direct or guaranteed loans administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) whose operations face financial risk.
This recent announcement in October 2022 kicks off a process to provide assistance to distressed farm loan borrowers using several complementary approaches, with the goal of keeping them farming, removing obstacles that currently prevent many of these borrowers from returning to farming, and improving the way that USDA approaches borrowing and servicing. Through this assistance, USDA is focused on generating long-term stability and success for distressed borrowers.
Work has already started to bring some relief to distressed farmers. As of Oct. 2022, over 13,000 borrowers have already benefited from the resources provided under the Inflation Reduction Act as follows:
- Approximately 11,000 delinquent direct and guaranteed borrowers had their accounts brought current. USDA also paid the next scheduled annual installment for these direct loan borrowers giving them peace of mind in the near term.
- Approximately 2,100 borrowers who had their farms foreclosed on and still had remaining debt have had this debt resolved in order to cease debt collections and garnishment relieving that burden that has made getting a fresh start more difficult.
In addition to the automatic assistance already provided, USDA has also outlined steps to administer up to an additional $500 million in payments to benefit the following distressed borrowers:
- USDA will administer $66 million in separate automatic payments, using COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, to support up to 7,000 direct loan borrowers who used FSA’s disaster-set-aside option during the pandemic to move their scheduled payments to the end of their loans.
- USDA is also initiating two case-by-case processes to provide additional assistance to farm loan borrowers. Under the first new process, FSA will review and assist with delinquencies from 1,600 complex cases, including cases in which borrowers are facing bankruptcy or foreclosure. The second new process will add a new option using existing direct loan servicing criteria to intervene more quickly and help an estimated 14,000 financially distressed borrowers who request assistance to avoid even becoming delinquent.
More details on each of the categories of assistance, including a downloadable fact sheet, are available on the Inflation Reduction Act webpage on farmers.gov.
Similar to other USDA assistance, all of these payments will be reported as income and borrowers are encouraged to consult their tax advisors. USDA also has resources and partnerships with cooperators who can provide additional assistance and help borrowers navigate the process.
The announcement today is only the first step in USDA’s efforts to provide assistance to distressed farm loan borrowers and respond to farmers and to improve the loan servicing efforts at USDA by adding more tools and relaxing unnecessary restrictions. Additional announcements and investments in assistance will be made as USDA institutes these additional changes and improvements.
This effort will ultimately also include adding more tools and relaxing unnecessary restrictions through assistance made possible by Congress through the IRA. Further assistance and changes to the approach will be made in subsequent phases.
Background
USDA provides access to credit to approximately 115,000 producers who cannot obtain sufficient commercial credit through direct and guaranteed farm loans, which do notinclude farm storage facility loans or marketing assistance loans. With the funds and direction Congress provided in Section 22006 of IRA, USDA is taking action to immediately provide relief to qualifying distressed borrowers whose operations are at financial risk while working on making transformational changes to how USDA goes about loan servicing in the long run so that borrowers are provided the flexibility and opportunities needed to address the inherent risks and unpredictability associated with agricultural operations and remain in good financial standing.
In January 2021, USDA suspended foreclosures and other adverse actions on direct farm loans due to the pandemic and encouraged guaranteed lenders to follow suit. Last week, USDA reiterated this request to guaranteed lenders to provide time for the full set of IRA distressed borrower assistance to be made available before lenders take irreparable actions.
Producers can explore available loan options using the Farm Loan Discovery Tool on farmers.gov (also available in Spanish) or by contacting their local USDA Service Center. Producers can also call the FSA call center at 877-508-8364 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern. USDA has tax-related resources available at farmers.gov/taxes.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency Accepting Offers for State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement Initiatives
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) is conducting signup for the Conservation Reserve Program’s (CRP) State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) Initiatives. Farmers and landowners in the Prairie SAFE Project area may be eligible to participate. The SAFE projects are available through CRP’s Continuous Signup.
Prairie SAFE Project
The goal of the Prairie SAFE Project is to reconnect geographically and reproductively isolated populations of Lesser Prairie Chickens, Northern Bobwhite and other grassland species by creating, restoring, and maintain 250,000 acres of native prairie habitat patches and corridors.
Potential benefits of Prairie SAFE include habitat restoration for grassland wildlife, improving water and air quality, improving plant health, erosion and runoff prevention, and water quality and aquifer recharge improvement.
For accepted offers, a wildlife conservation plan must be developed.
Eligibility
CRP enrolls existing cropland into conservation cover. Land offered for enrollment must satisfy basic CRP eligibility and cropping history requirements. Farmers and landowners should check with their local FSA office to determine individual eligibility.
Financial Assistance
The CRP program pays a yearly rental payment in exchange for farmers and landowners removing environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and planting species that will improve environmental quality.
Financial assistance through the SAFE projects may include:
- 10-15 years of annual rental payments
- Payments of up to 50% cost-share for practice establishment
- Practices enrolled through CRP Continuous Sign-up will also receive:
- A 50% Practice Incentive Payment
- Sign-up Incentive Payment equal to 32.5% of first full year’s annual rental payment
- A Climate Smart Annual Practice Incentive of 3, 5, or 10 based on the practice cover
- Payments up to 90% of established Soil Rental Rate may be possible for:
- Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds
- Permanent Wildlife Habitat
More Information
Farmers and landowners interested in learning more about the Prairie SAFE Project can contact the Terry County FSA office at 806-637-7666.
