With the current operating protocols for COVID, we urge you to call your county office to find out the operating status that the office is currently in.  Walla Walla County USDA Service Center is currently closed for face to face appointments with visitors, however assistance is available through phone and email.  Columbia County USDA Service Center is open to visitors by appointment only.  These statuses are subject to change with the increase or decrease of COVID cases in each county.  Also please note that inclement weather, may also affect an office's operating level to a telework status, all employees will be available by phone or email on these days.   We appreciate your patience with the ever changing operating statuses of the service centers due to COVID.  

As a reminder please ensure that we have your correct direct deposit information on file.  If you have changed banks please provide your county office with a voided check so this information may be corrected so as to not hold up any program payments.  

Please report any farm record changes to the office (land sales, leases etc....)

As a reminder, when submitting documentation for CRP/CREP cost share reimbursement, all invoices need to include the number of acres that were treated, cost per acre and some way to tie the invoice to a CRP contract (contract number, tract number, etc.) In addition, the invoice needs to be made out to all parties/individuals receiving reimbursement.  Invoices should never be made out to FSA or USDA.  If you are unsure if your documentation will be considered sufficient please contact the office.  Chemical invoices should always be submitted for self billing as well.  As a reminder all Enhancement practices must be completed within the first 18 months of the contract.  Establishment practices should be completed within the timeframe provided in the conservation plan, if an extension is needed a formal request must be submitted to the COC, extensions and cover establishment shall not exceed the first 36 months of the contract. Also at this time there is no information on the upcoming CRP signup.  When this information becomes available, it will be shared.  Thank you for your patience.

Columbia County U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Walla Walla County U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA)  announced that County Committee elections are over and the ballots have been counted.

Julia Mead of Dayton, WA was elected to represent local administrative area (LAA) 3 # for Columbia County and Travis Chabre of Walla Walla, WA was elected to represent local administrative area (LAA) 3 #.

County committee members are a critical component of the day-to-day operations of FSA. They help deliver programs at the county level and work to serve the needs of local producers. All recently elected county committee members will take office in January 2022 and will be joining the existing committee. Every FSA office is required to have a county committee, which are made up of local farmers, ranchers and foresters elected by local producers.

County committee members impact the administration of FSA within a community by applying their knowledge and judgment to help FSA make important decisions on commodity support programs, conservation programs, indemnity and disaster programs, emergency programs and eligibility.

County committee members serve local producers through their decision making and help shape the culture of a local FSA office. They also ensure the fair and equitable administration of FSA farm programs in their counties and are accountable to the Secretary of Agriculture. Members conduct hearings and reviews as requested by the state committee, ensure underserved farmers, ranchers and foresters are fairly represented, make recommendations to the state committee on existing programs, monitor changes in farm programs and inform farmers of the purpose and provisions of FSA programs. They also assist with outreach and inform underserved producers, such as beginning farmers, ranchers and foresters, about FSA opportunities.

For more information, visit the FSA website at fsa.usda.gov/elections or contact the Columbia County FSA Office at 509-382-2421, ext. 2 or Walla Walla County FSA Office at 509-522-6347, ext. 2.

Livestock Forage Program (LFP)

LFP provides financial assistance to eligible livestock producers when producers suffer grazing losses due to drought conditions reaching an intensity level of D2 for 8 consecutive weeks, or a D3 or D4 for any given length of time. Payments are based upon intensity levels and the duration at which the drought remains at that intensity level.

Eligible livestock owners or contract growers must have risk in the livestock, and also provide the eligible grazing land physically located within an eligible county. This includes land that is owned or leased with the intent of grazing. All forage ground must be accounted for on the applicant’s acreage report (FSA-578) and must have been filed by the reporting deadline of July 15, 2021. Late filed acreage reports will be subject to late file fees and provisions.  

All leases or CCC-855s, verifiable cattle records and signed application must be in by January 31, 2022. Failure to submit the documentation listed above will result in an incomplete or disapproval of the application.  Please call your county office to ensure that your documentation has been provided. 

Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP)

Please ensure that any ELAP documentation for a previously filed notice of loss, that must have been filed within 30 days of the apparent loss is submitted by January 31, 2022  as well.  This would include previous applications filed for water hauling, feed transportation or honey bee losses.  Again failure to provide all documentation can result in an incomplete application or disapproval of an application.  

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP)

LIP provides assistance to eligible livestock owners and contract growers for eligible livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality as a direct result of an eligible loss condition. Eligible livestock must have died as a direct result of an eligible loss condition.  Eligible weather events are set by the COC when an extreme weather event takes place that would be considered abnormal for the area.  Other eligible causes of loss could be caused by an animal attack.  The animal attack must be a confirmed attack by a federally protected species.  Please note that if you feel that you have a loss by what could be either a potential eligible weather event or attack, please document the loss and contact your county office to report the loss. 

FSA recently updated the annual and benchmark yields for ARC/PLC program years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. This data is useful to producer in choosing to participate in either ARC or PLC.

For added assistance with ARC and PLC decisions, USDA partnered with the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University to 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, the University of Illinois tool that offers farmers the ability to run payment estimate modeling for their farms and counties for ARC-County and PLC.
• ARC and PLC Decision Tool, the Texas A&M tool that allow producers to analyze payment yield updates and expected payments for 2019,  2020 and 2021. Producers who have used the tool in the past should see their username and much of their farm data will already be available in the system.

The 2022 ARC/PLC deadline for Election and Enrollment is March 15, 2022.  Please contact your local office for an appointment or if you have any questions.