Thank you for reading another edition of the Terry County USDA News Bulletin. We have a few important announcements to share with you. 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). Producers who are eligible for assistance through ERP Phase One have until Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, to contact the County Office to receive program benefits. Going forward, if any additional ERP Phase One prefilled applications are generated due to corrections or other circumstances, there will be a 30-day deadline from the date of notification for that particular application.
Important Dates:
November 29, 2022 – Deadline to report NAP grass/grazing acres on the FSA-578 acreage report. Deadline to submit an application for payment on watermelons covered under NAP.
December 1, 2022 – Deadline to purchase NAP grass/grazing coverage for 2023.
December 5, 2022 – Deadline to return completed County Committee election ballots.
December 14, 2022 – Deadline to submit an application for payment on pumpkins covered under NAP.
December 16, 2022 – Deadline to submit an application for Emergency Relief Program Phase One.
January 15, 2023 – Deadline to report small grains and grapes on the FSA-578 acreage report.
January 31, 2023 – Deadline to apply for the 2022 Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP).
Elections for the 2022 County Committee
Elections for USDA’s Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Terry County Committee are underway.
It is important that every eligible producer participates in these elections because FSA county committees are a link between the agricultural community and the USDA. The 2022 election in Terry County will be conducted for the representative Local Administrative Area (LAA) #2: which includes the area West of the HWY 62/82 & North of HWY 380. This encompasses the town of Meadow and the communities of Needmore, Johnson, Gomez, and Tokio.
To be eligible to vote in the elections, a person must:
Meet requirement one (see explanation below) or meet requirement two, and requirement three (see explanation below).
Requirement One: Be of legal voting age and have an interest in a farm or ranch as either: an individual who meets one or more of the following; (a) is eligible and capable to vote in one’s own right, (b) is a partner of a general partnership, (c) is a member of a joint venture OR an authorized representative of a legal entity, such as: (a) a corporation, estate, trust, limited partnership or other business enterprises, excluding general partnership and joint ventures or (b) a state, political subdivision of a state or any state agency (only the designated representative may cast a vote for the entity).
Requirement Two: Not of legal voting age but supervises and conducts the farming operations of an entire farm.
Requirement Three: Participates or cooperates in an FSA program that is provided by law. A cooperating producer is someone who has provided information about their farming or ranching operation(s) but may not have applied or received FSA program benefits.
County committee election ballots will be mailed to eligible voters on Nov. 7, 2022. The last day to return completed ballots to the USDA Service Center is Dec. 5, 2022.
For more information on eligibility to serve on FSA county committees, visit: fsa.usda.gov/elections.
Farmers Can Now Make 2023 Crop Year Elections, Enroll in Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage Programs Agricultural producers can now change election and enroll in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage programs for the 2023 crop year, two key safety net programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Signup began Monday, and producers have until March 15, 2023, to enroll in these two programs. Additionally, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has started issuing payments totaling more than $255 million to producers with 2021 crops that have triggered payments through ARC or PLC.
2023 Elections and Enrollment Producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which provides crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual (ARC-IC), which protects the entire farm. Although election changes for 2023 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year. Also, if a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm and makes an election change for 2023, they must sign a new contract. If producers do not submit their election by the March 15, 2023 deadline, their election remains the same as their 2022 election for crops on the farm. Farm owners cannot enroll in either program unless they have a shared interest in the farm. Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed, and wheat.
Web-Based Decision Tools In partnership with USDA, the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University offer web-based decision tools to assist producers in making informed, educated decisions using crop data specific to their respective farming operations. Tools include: Gardner-farmdoc Payment Calculator, a tool available through the University of Illinois allows producers to estimate payments for farms and counties for ARC-CO and PLC. ARC and PLC Decision Tool, a tool available through Texas A&M that allows producers to obtain basic information regarding the decision and factors that should be taken into consideration such as future commodity prices and historic yields to estimate payments for 2022.
2021 Payments and Contracts ARC and PLC payments for a given crop year are paid out the following fall to allow actual county yields and the Market Year Average prices to be finalized. This month, FSA processed payments to producers enrolled in 2021 ARC-CO, ARC-IC and PLC for covered commodities that triggered for the crop year. For ARC-CO, producers can view the 2021 ARC-CO Benchmark Yields and Revenues online database, for payment rates applicable to their county and each covered commodity. For PLC, payments have triggered for rapeseed and peanuts. For ARC-IC, producers should contact their local FSA office for additional information pertaining to 2021 payment information, which relies on producer-specific yields for the crop and farm to determine benchmark yields and actual year yields when calculating revenues.
By the Numbers In 2021, producers signed nearly 1.8 million ARC or PLC contracts, and 251 million out of 273 million base acres were enrolled in the programs. For the 2022 crop year signed contracts surpassed 1.8 million, to be paid in the fall of 2023, if a payment triggers. Since ARC and PLC were first authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and reauthorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, these safety-net programs have paid out more than $34.9 billion to producers of covered commodities.
Crop Insurance Considerations ARC and PLC are part of a broader safety net provided by USDA, which also includes crop insurance and marketing assistance loans. Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC elections and enrollments can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products. Producers on farms with a PLC election have the option of purchasing Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider; however, producers on farms where ARC is the election are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres for that crop on that farm. Unlike SCO, the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is unaffected by an ARC election. Producers may add ECO regardless of the farm program election. Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the stacked income protection plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres for that farm.
More Information For more information on ARC and PLC, visit the ARC and PLC webpage or contact your local USDA Service Center.
