Pay attention to new deadlines

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For many of you, we know recent weather conditions have caused delays in harvest and other typical fall farm and ranch work. The Perkins County FSA Office wants to remind you to please take care as you rush around to complete harvest, plant winter wheat, move hay and wean calves. Our office has been busy processing crop year 2017 safety net benefits, getting fall-seeded crops and perennial grass/pasture acres certified and rolling out the Market Facilitation Program and FSA County Committee election ballots.

Acreage Reporting

The deadline is Nov. 15 to timely certify with our office any fall-seeded crops, such as wheat, rye, or perennial crops, such as alfalfa and pastures. Certification of acres now helps maintain your eligibility in 2019 for important programs, so please call our office and schedule a certification appointment today. 

Acreage Reporting Pilot Project

Wheat producers in 16 Nebraska counties, including Perkins County, may be eligible for a pilot program to test their ability to use precision ag data for reporting acreage to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies. 

Nebraska USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) are looking for wheat producers to test the transfer of data collected by producers’ planting equipment as part of a streamlining initiative. The data will be processed by an approved third-party provider and transmitted directly to FSA and RMA as part of the Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative (ACRSI).

Crop acreage reporting is an important step farmers and ranchers take to be eligible for many USDA programs and services, such as federal crop insurance administered by RMA and farm programs administered by FSA. The fall acreage reporting deadline is Nov. 15, 2018, for winter wheat sown for 2019 production.

The Nebraska counties participating in the pilot include Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes-North Sioux, Frontier, Furnas, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Keith, Kimball, Lincoln, Morrill, Perkins, Red Willow, Sheridan and Webster.

Participating wheat farmers still will have to visit their participating FSA county office to sign the final acreage reports and provide any additional information, as well as visit their crop insurance agent to validate transmitted data. 

Wheat farmers interested in participating in the pilot should contact the Perkins County FSA Office. This process must be completed by the Nov. 15, 2018, fall acreage reporting deadline. 

County Committee Election

Election for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) Perkins County Committee is under way. County committee election ballots will be mailed to eligible voters on Nov. 5, 2018. The last day to return completed ballots to the Pekins County USDA service center is Dec. 3, 2018. 

It is important that every eligible producer participate in these elections because FSA county committees are a link between the agricultural community and the USDA. The 2018 election in Perkins County will be conducted for the representative Local Administrative Area (LAA) 3 including the eastern portion of the county including township 9 and 10 in Range 37; township 9-12 in Range 35 and 36. 

Candidate(s) for this seat include:  Darin Robertson   resides in LAA # 3 and has produced corn, wheat, forage crops and livestock for 20 years. Darin Robertson is willing to serve if elected.

For more information on county committee elections and eligibility to vote in county committee elections, visit: www.fsa.usda.gov/elections. 

Reminder of Deadlines

The Nebraska Farm Service Agency (FSA) is reminding producers of new policy application deadlines for several crops covered through the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). 

NAP provides disaster assistance coverage for crops that are ineligible for federal crop insurance coverage. In Nebraska, this can include crops such as alfalfa, perennial grass forage and grazing crops, honey, fruits, vegetables, floriculture, ornamental nursery, aquaculture and turf grass, among others.

Nebraska FSA earlier this year made changes to the policy application closing dates for several crops for the 2019 season. In some cases, the policy application closing deadline is six months earlier than in the past. 

These new deadlines include:

• Alfalfa and mixed forages, deadline to apply for 2019 coverage: Oct. 1, 2018

• Grass, deadline to apply for 2019 coverage: Nov. 15, 2018

• Aronia berries and grapes, deadline to apply for 2019 coverage: Nov. 20, 2018.

Producers of these crops who wish to have NAP coverage in 2019 must contact their local FSA office prior to the policy application closing deadline. 

Like crop insurance, NAP coverage is valuable when weather and disease disasters strike. Eligible causes of loss for NAP include drought, freeze, hail, excessive moisture or wind, flooding, excessive heat, among others. NAP basic coverage is available at 55 percent of the average market price for crop losses that exceed 50 percent of expected production.

The fee for basic coverage is $250 per crop, with a maximum of $750 per county and a multi-county maximum of $1,875. Beginning, underserved and limited resource farmers are eligible for free catastrophic level of coverage.

To learn more about NAP visit www.fsa.usda.gov/nap. To find out about the crops covered by NAP in your local area, visit your county FSA office. To find your local office, go to www.farmers.gov.

Contact the Perkins County FSA office at (308) 352-4747 for additional information.

From all of us at the Perkins County FSA, take care and please close out the harvest season safely. We look forward to seeing you in our office soon.

 

The Grant Tribune-Sentinel

308-352-4311 (Phone)

PO Box 67
327 Central Ave in Grant
Grant NE 69140