Happy February-
Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow and spring is around the corner! On our own farm we are preparing for the coming season and getting ready to hit the ground running once it warms up, officially. We took the plastic off our high tunnels this winter to revitalize our soil and soon it’s time to re-sheath them and get planting! This recent weather is confusing for us, our plants and more so, our livestock and animals. Yet the early morning sunrise and longer days gives us all the hope that we long for at this time of year, to prepare for this planting season.
At FSA want to ensure all producers are aware of the available resources and programs. We attended two events this month, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Lancaster and the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Hershey. It was wonderful to see so many producers at these events. A popular program of interest is the Farm Storage Facility Loans (FSFL). FSFL provide low-interest financing for producers to store, handle and/or transport eligible commodities they produce. Traditionally they have been utilized to finance grain bins, hay wagons, skid steers and hay bale dryers. Did you know that you can also finance cold storage refrigerator and freezer units, reefer trucks, tanks for maple sap, and barrel washers for produce just to name a few? Are you renovating your existing farm storage facilities? Reach out to your county office first and see what is eligible. Any equipment you need to improve, maintain, or monitor the quality of your crop/commodity could be eligible for an FSFL. Contact your local Farm Service Agency office to take advantage of this great opportunity to increase the infrastructure you need to “grow” your farm.
This Administration has worked tirelessly to make sure that our programs and loans continue to be accessible and less cumbersome to all producers. The focus has been on how FSA can better benefit the farming communities, with an eye on what is going to be most impactful and longstanding. A streamlined process recently announced was the Pay My Loan feature on farmers.gov. Most farm loan borrowers will be able to make payments to their direct loans online. To learn more about accessing this payment feature read the article below and visit farmer.gov/loans.
As you’re thinking about this upcoming season, remember FSA for your farm operating and ownership needs. If you have recently been approved for an agricultural grant or cost-share program and need resources to begin the project, a farm loan from FSA may be able to help! Contact your local farm loan team to determine which loans programs may be of service to you and your operation.
We have so much more information in this month’s newsletter like the upcoming deadline of March 15 for the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) commodity crop safety net programs for 2024 and the announcement of the signup period for the Dairy Margin Coverage Program open now through April 29, 2024. Happy reading!
From my farm gate to yours-
Heidi Secord
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Dairy producers are able to enroll for 2024 Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC), an important safety net program offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides producers with price support to help offset milk and feed price differences. This year’s DMC signup begins Feb. 28, 2024, and ends April 29, 2024. For those who sign up for 2024 DMC coverage, payments may begin as soon as March 4, 2024, for any payments that triggered in January 2024.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has revised the regulations for DMC to allow eligible dairy operations to make a one-time adjustment to established production history. This adjustment will be accomplished by combining previously established supplemental production history with DMC production history for those dairy operations that participated in Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage during a prior coverage year. DMC has also been authorized through calendar year 2024. Congress passed a 2018 Farm Bill extension requiring these regulatory changes to the program.
DMC is a voluntary risk management program that offers protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed price (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. In 2023, Dairy Margin Coverage payments triggered in 11 months including two months, June and July, where the margin fell below the catastrophic level of $4.00 per hundredweight, a first for Dairy Margin Coverage or its predecessor Margin Protection Program.
2024 DMC Coverage and Premium Fees
FSA has revised DMC regulations to extend coverage for calendar year 2024, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024, and to provide an adjustment to the production history for dairy operations with less than 5 million pounds of production. In previous years, smaller dairy operations could establish a supplemental production history and receive Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage. For 2024, dairy producers can establish one adjusted base production history through DMC for each participating dairy operation to better reflect the operation’s current production.
For 2024 DMC enrollment, dairy operations that established supplemental production history through Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage for coverage years 2021 through 2023, will combine the supplemental production history with established production history for one adjusted base production history.
For dairy operations enrolled in 2023 DMC under a multi-year lock-in contract, lock-in eligibility will be extended until Dec. 31, 2024. In addition, dairy operations enrolled in multi-year lock-in contracts are eligible for the discounted DMC premium rate during the 2024 coverage year. To confirm 2024 DMC lock-in coverage or opt out in favor of an annual contract for 2024, dairy operations having lock-in contracts must enroll during the 2024 DMC enrollment period.
DMC offers different levels of coverage, even an option that is free to producers, minus a $100 administrative fee. The administrative fee is waived for dairy producers who are considered limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged or a military veteran. To determine the appropriate level of DMC coverage for a specific dairy operation, producers can use the online dairy decision tool.
DMC Payments
DMC payments are calculated using updated feed and premium hay costs, making the program more reflective of actual dairy producer expenses. These updated feed calculations use 100% premium alfalfa hay.
More Information
USDA also offers other risk management tools for dairy producers, including the Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) plan that protects against a decline in milk revenue (yield and price) and the Livestock Gross Margin (LGM) plan, which provides protection against the loss of the market value of milk minus the feed costs. Both DRP and LGM livestock insurance policies are offered through the Risk Management Agency. Producers should contact their local crop insurance agent for more information.
For more information on DMC, visit the DMC webpage or contact your local USDA Service Center.
Agricultural producers who have not yet enrolled in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2024 crop year have until March 15, 2024, to revise elections and sign contracts. Both safety net programs, delivered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provide vital income support to farmers who experience substantial declines in crop prices or revenues for the 2024 crop year. In Pennsylvania, producers have completed 19,655 contracts to date, representing 65% of the more than 30,000 expected contracts.
Producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-County or PLC, which provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual, which protects the entire farm. Although election changes for 2024 are optional, producers must enroll, with a signed contract, each year. If a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm, the contract will continue for 2024 unless an election change is made.
If producers do not submit their election revision by the March 15, 2024, deadline, the election remains the same as their 2023 election for eligible commodities on the farm. Also, producers who do not complete enrollment and sign their contract by the deadline will not be enrolled in ARC or PLC for the 2024 year and will not receive a payment if one is triggered. Farm owners can only enroll in these programs if they have a share interest in the commodity.
Producers are eligible to enroll farms with base acres for the following commodities: 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
Many universities offer web-based decision tools to help producers make informed, educated decisions using crop data specific to their respective farming operations. Producers are encouraged to use the tool of their choice to support their ARC and PLC elections.
Crop Insurance Considerations
Producers are reminded that enrolling in ARC or PLC programs can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products offered by USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA). Producers who elect and enroll in PLC also have the option of purchasing Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider, but producers of covered commodities who elect ARC are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres.
Unlike SCO, RMA’s Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is unaffected by participating in ARC for the same crop, on the same acres. You may elect ECO regardless of your 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, or STAX, on their planted cotton acres.
More Information
For more information on ARC and PLC, producers can visit the ARC and PLC webpage or contact their local USDA Service Center. Producers can also prepare maps for acreage reporting as well as manage farm loans and view other farm records data and customer information by logging into their farmers.gov account. If you don’t have an account, sign up today.
Farm Service Agency (FSA) program payments are issued electronically into your bank account. In order to receive timely payments, you need to notify your FSA servicing office if you close your account or if your bank information is changed for any reason (such as your financial institution merging or being purchased). Payments can be delayed if FSA is not notified of changes to account and bank routing numbers.
For some programs, payments are not made until the following year. For example, payments for crop year 2019 through the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage program aren’t paid until 2020. If the bank account was closed due to the death of an individual or dissolution of an entity or partnership before the payment was issued, please notify your local FSA office as soon as possible to claim your payment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that most farm loan borrowers will soon be able to make payments to their direct loans online through the Pay My Loan feature on farmers.gov in early February. Pay My Loan is part of a broader effort by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to streamline its processes, especially for producers who may have limited time during the planting or harvest seasons to visit a local FSA office; modernize and improve customer service; provide additional customer self-service tools; and expand credit access to assist more producers.
On average, local USDA Service Centers process more than 225,000 farm loan payments each year. Pay My Loan gives most borrowers an online repayment option and relieves them from needing to call, mail, or visit a Service Center to pay their loan installment. Farm loan payments can now be made at the borrower’s convenience, on their schedule and outside of FSA office hours.
Pay My Loan also provides time savings for FSA’s farm loan employees by minimizing manual payment processing activities. This new service for producers means that farm loan employees will have more time to focus on reviewing and processing new loans or servicing requests.
The Pay My Loan feature can be accessed at farmers.gov/loans. To use the payment feature, producers must establish a USDA customer account and a USDA Level 2 eAuthentication (“eAuth”) account or a Login.gov account. This initial release only allows individuals with loans to make online payments. For now, borrowers with jointly payable checks will need to continue to make loan payments through their local office.
FSA has a significant initiative underway to streamline and automate the Farm Loan Program customer-facing business process. For the over 26,000 producers who submit a direct loan application annually, FSA has made various improvements including:
- The Online Loan Application, an interactive, guided application that is paperless and provides helpful features including an electronic signature option, the ability to attach supporting documents such as tax returns, complete a balance sheet, and build a farm operating plan.
- The Loan Assistance Tool that provides customers with an interactive online, step-by-step guide to identifying the direct loan products that may be a fit for their business needs and to understanding the application process.
- A simplified direct loan paper application, which reduced loan applications by more than half, from 29 pages to 13 pages.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) works to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners invest in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture and improve the quality of our air, water, soil and wildlife habitat.
Simply put – NRCS helps America’s farmers, ranchers and forestland owners make conservation work for them.
Our Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program enables every acre of voluntary conservation applied through every program NRCS administers. It is the foundation of our financial and technical assistance delivery system.
Every farm and acre is unique and requires tailored management; and every decision maker has different management concerns and needs. Our technical assistance is one-on-one, personalized advice and support to help producers make the best decisions for their lands – and is offered free of charge.
This personalized assistance provides producers with the science-based data and tools to make informed decisions about where to target efforts to get the greatest return on their investment and ensure the long-term sustainability of American agriculture.
A comprehensive conservation plan is the first step to managing all the natural resources on a farm. NRCS walks the farm with the producer and develops options to address that producer’s needs. Our toolbox includes aerial photos, soil surveys, engineering solutions and individual science-based analysis customized for the producer’s property. The plan we develop with the producer combines existing production methods with recommended conservation practices to best manage that farm’s unique natural resources, while allowing the producer to grow sustainably and productively. Supported by our expert analysis and recommendations, the producer chooses which option best meets their needs. These decisions become the producer’s conservation plan, a step-by-step guide to reach their objectives.
This planning process also makes it easier to identify how and when the farmer, rancher or forest landowner could qualify for Farm Bill financial assistance to help them install conservation systems or receive incentives for trying new ones. We have the expertise to see our customers through this process. Because identifying when, where and how to implement practices is not plug and play.
The final plan provides a roadmap for the producer to meet their natural resource conservation goals. It includes helpful information on each of the producer’s practices, such as how they benefit the farm, how to maintain them, and how they help the soil, water and wildlife.
By developing a conservation plan and adding conservation to the land, farmers, ranchers and forest landowners can protect the land’s ability to provide for their family and future generations.
With offices in communities nationwide, NRCS staff provide the information, tools and delivery systems necessary for producers – in every state and territory – to conserve, maintain and improve their natural resources.
Contact your local USDA service center to find out more.
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