USDA Montana Newsletter - September 2024
In This Issue:
USDA in Montana reminds agricultural producers of important Farm Service Agency (FSA) program dates. Contact your local service center to apply and with any questions. Visit online at farmers.gov and fsa.usda.gov/mt.
Sept. 2, 2024: Office Closure for Labor Day federal holiday.
Sept. 3, 2024: NAP application closing date for fall and spring seeded Canola and all Value Loss Crops.
September 30, 2024: Acreage Reporting Date for Value-loss and controlled environment crops (except nursery).
Sept. 30, 2024: NAP application closing date for all annual & perennial grass & mixed forage, garlic, rye, speltz, triticale & wheat. Please note that the acreage reporting date for your NAP covered crops is the earlier of the established FSA acreage reporting date for the crop or 15 calendar days before the onset of harvest or grazing of the specific crop acreage being reported.
Oct:14, 2024: Office closure for Columbus Day federal holiday
October 15, 2024: Final date for filing ERP 2022 Track 1 applications impacted by RMA and NAP change records received from May 3 through July 29, 2024.
October 15, 2024: Deadline to submit required and optional eligibility forms affiliated with all ERP 2022 Track 1 and Track 2 applications remains. Optional forms include FSA-510 and CCC-860.
Oct. 31, 2024: OCCSP signup is open now until October 31, 2023.
Nov. 1, 2024: Last day of 2024 CRP Summer/Fall Non-Emergency Grazing Period (prior approval required)
Early November: 2024 County Committee Election Ballots to be Mailed to Voters
Nov 15: 2025 Acreage Reporting Deadline for Apiculture, Fall Wheat (Hard Red Winter), and all other Fall Seeded Small Grains. Please note that this is the final date that FSA can accept late-filed Program year 2024 reports for these crops.
Dec. 2, 2024: Voted FSA County Committee Election Ballots to be returned to the FSA County Office or post-marked.
Dec. 31, 2024: 2025 NAP Application for Coverage Deadline for Honey
Jan. 15, 2025: Established stand alfalfa seed, fall alfalfa seed (NAP= spring & fall Alf SD), and cherries for acreage reporting
Jan. 30, 2025: Application deadline for 2024 LFP. Producers must complete a CCC-853 and provide required supporting documentation no later than January 30, 2025, for 2024 losses.
Jan. 30, 2025: Deadline to submit a Notice of Loss and Application for Payment for 2024 ELAP
Jan. 31, 2025: The Food Safety Certification for Specialty Crops (FSCSC) program to now include medium-sized businesses in addition to small businesses. Eligible specialty crop growers can apply for assistance for expenses related to obtaining or renewing a food safety certification. The program has also been expanded to include assistance for 2024 and 2025 expenses. Producers can apply for assistance on their calendar year 2024 expenses beginning July 1, 2024, through Jan. 31, 2025. For program year 2025, the application period will be Jan. 1, 2025, through Jan. 31, 2026. Read the full news release here: USDA Expands Funding Opportunities for Specialty Crop Growers to Help Offset On-Farm Food Safety Expenses for 2024 and 2025
*Note for ELAP Notice of Loss- If you are hauling feed/livestock/water due to a qualifying drought during the 2024 grazing period, a new NOL is required - even if you already submitted a NOL prior to the 2024 grazing period.
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Summer seemed to pass by with a blink of an eye and school is already back in session. What a joy to see all the young folks learning and gaining an education that will help them throughout their lives. Especially, those who wish to carry on our strong agricultural traditions here in Montana. I encourage everyone to always seek knowledge and understanding in everything they do. It's through study and learning that many advances in agriculture have been achieved, with many more to come. Education for our youth could be learning how things grow, and our already working farmers and ranchers trying something new that improves their operation. Education is vital to agriculture.
I wish you all a happy and healthy school year!
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Marketing Assistance Loans (MALs) and Loan Deficiency Payments (LDPs) provide financing and marketing assistance for wheat, feed grains, soybeans, and other oilseeds, pulse crops, rice, peanuts, cotton, wool and honey. MALs provide you with interim financing after harvest to help you meet cash flow needs without having to sell your commodities when market prices are typically at harvest-time lows. A producer who is eligible to obtain a loan, but agrees to forgo the loan, may obtain an LDP if such a payment is available. Marketing loan provisions and LDPs are not available for sugar and extra-long staple cotton.
FSA is now accepting requests for 2024 MALs and LDPs for all eligible commodities after harvest. Requests for loans and LDPs shall be made on or before the final availability date for the respective commodities.
Commodity certificates are available to loan holders who have outstanding nonrecourse loans for wheat, upland cotton, rice, feed grains, pulse crops (dry peas, lentils, large and small chickpeas), peanuts, wool, soybeans and designated minor oilseeds. These certificates can be purchased at the posted county price (or adjusted world price or national posted price) for the quantity of commodity under loan, and must be immediately exchanged for the collateral, satisfying the loan. MALs redeemed with commodity certificates are not subject to Adjusted Gross Income provisions.
To be considered eligible for an LDP, you must have form CCC-633EZ, Page 1 on file at your local FSA Office before losing beneficial interest in the crop. Pages 2, 3 or 4 of the form must be submitted when payment is requested.
Marketing loan gains (MLGs) and loan deficiency payments (LDPs) are no longer subject to payment limitations, actively engaged in farming and cash-rent tenant rules.
Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) provisions state that if your total applicable three-year average AGI exceeds $900,000, then you’re not eligible to receive an MLG or LDP. You must have a valid CCC-941 on file to earn a market gain of LDP. The AGI does not apply to MALs redeemed with commodity certificate exchange.
For more information, loan rates, and additional eligibility requirements, contact your local County USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov.
Click the button below to search county specific loan rates and LDP rates for available eligible commodities. Enter in your "State" and "County" names and then select "Search". The loan rates for MAL will be listed under the "Loan Rate" column and the LDP rates will be listed under the "Effective LDP Rate" column.
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This is likely no surprise to you, but drought persists across the western U.S. and is intensifying in some areas. No geographic area is immune to the potential of drought at any given time. The U.S. Drought Monitor provides a weekly drought assessment, and it plays an important role in USDA programs that help farmers and ranchers recover from drought.
Fact #1 - Numerous agencies use the Drought Monitor to inform drought-related decisions.
The map identifies areas of drought and labels them by intensity on a weekly basis. It categorizes the entire country as being in one of six levels of drought. The first two, None and Abnormally Dry (D0), are not considered to be drought. The next four describe increasing levels of drought: Moderate (D1), Severe (D2), Extreme (D3) and Exceptional (D4).
While many entities consult the Drought Monitor for drought information, drought declarations are made by federal, state and local agencies that may or may not use the Drought Monitor to inform their decisions. Some of the ways USDA uses it to determine a producer’s eligibility for certain drought assistance programs, like the Livestock Forage Disaster Program and Emergency Haying or Grazing on Conservation Reserve Program acres and to “fast-track” Secretarial drought disaster designations.
Fact #2 - U.S. Drought Monitor is made with more than precipitation data.
When you think about drought, you probably think about water, or the lack of it. Precipitation plays a major role in the creation of the Drought Monitor, but the map’s author considers numerous indicators, including drought impacts and local insight from over 450 expert observers around the country. Authors use several dozen indicators to assess drought, including precipitation, streamflow, reservoir levels, temperature and evaporative demand, soil moisture and vegetation health. Because the drought monitor depicts both short and long‐term drought conditions, the authors must look at data for multiple timeframes. The final map produced each week represents a summary of the story being told by all the pieces of data. To help tell that story, authors don’t just look at data. They converse over the course of the map-making week with experts across the country and draw information about drought impacts from media reports and private citizens.
Fact #3 - A real person, using real data, updates the map.
Each week’s map author, not a computer, processes and analyzes data to update the drought monitor. The map authors are trained climatologists or meteorologists from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (the academic partner and website host of the Drought Monitor), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and USDA. The author’s job is to do what a computer can’t – use their expertise to reconcile the sometimes-conflicting stories told by each stream of data into a single assessment.
Fact #4 - The Drought Monitor provides a current snapshot, not a forecast.
The Drought Monitor is a “snapshot” of conditions observed during the most recent week and builds off the previous week’s map. The map is released on Thursdays and depicts conditions based on data for the week that ended the preceding Tuesday. Rain that falls on the Wednesday just before the USDM’s release won’t be reflected until the next map is published. This provides a consistent, week‐to‐week product and gives the author a window to assess the data and come up with a final map.
Fact #5 – Your input can be part of the drought-monitoring process.
State climatologists and other trained observers in the drought monitoring network relay on-the-ground information from numerous sources to the US Drought monitor author each week. That can include information that you contribute.
The Drought Monitor serves as a trigger for multiple forms of federal disaster relief for agricultural producers, and sometimes producers contact the author to suggest that drought conditions in their area are worse than what the latest drought monitor shows. When the author gets a call like that, it prompts them to look closely at all available data for that area, to see whether measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil moisture and other indicators corroborate producer-submitted reports. This is the process that authors follow whether they receive one report or one hundred reports, although reports from more points may help state officials and others know where to look for impacts.
There are multiple ways to contribute your observations:
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Talk to your state climatologist - Find the current list at the American Association of State Climatologists website.
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Email - Emails sent to droughtmonitor@unl.edu inform the USDM authors.
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Become a CoCoRaHS observer - Submit drought reports along with daily precipitation observations to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network.
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Submit Condition Monitoring Observer Reports (CMOR) - go.unl.edu/CMOR
For more information, read our Ask the Expert blog with a NDMC climatologist or visit farmers.gov/protection-recovery.
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23 MT Counties Triggered; U.S. Drought Monitor Updated Weekly
Livestock producers in 23 Montana counties are eligible to apply for 2024 Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) benefits on small grain, native pasture, improved pasture, annual ryegrass, and forage sorghum. LFP provides compensation if you suffer grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or leased land, or fire on federally managed land. County committees can only accept LFP applications after notification is received by the National Office of qualifying drought, or if a federal agency prohibits producers from grazing normal permitted livestock on federally managed lands due to qualifying fire. The following 23 Montana counties have triggered the 2024 LFP drought criteria: Beaverhead, Carter, Cascade, Deer Lodge, Flathead, Glacier, Granite, Jefferson, Judith Basin, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Madison, Meagher, Mineral, Missoula, Pondera, Powell, Ravalli, Roosevelt, Sanders, Sheridan, Silver Bow and Teton
Producers must complete a CCC-853 and provide required supporting documentation no later than January 30, 2025, for 2024 losses.
Producers in Beaverhead, Broadwater, Carter, Cascade, Deer Lodge, Flathead, Gallatin, Glacier, Granite, Jefferson, Judith Basin, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Madison, Meagher, Mineral, Missoula, Park, Pondera, Powell, Ravalli, Roosevelt, Sanders, Sheridan, Silver Bow and Teton counties are eligible to apply for benefits under the 2024 Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) for losses relating to feed transportation, livestock transportation and water transportation costs. The deadline for filing a notice of loss under ELAP will be the same as the final date to submit an application for payment, which is 30 calendar days following the program year of which the loss occurred. Applications for payment and notices of loss must be completed no later than January 30, 2025, for 2024 losses.
For additional information about ELAP and LFP, including eligible livestock and fire criteria, contact the local USDA Service Center and/or visit www.farmers.gov and/or fsa.usda.gov/mt.
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Borrower training is available for all Farm Service Agency (FSA) customers. This training is required for all direct loan applicants, unless the applicant has a waiver issued by the agency.
Borrower training includes instruction in production and financial management. The purpose is to help the applicants develop and improve skills that are necessary to successfully operate a farm and build equity in the operation. It aims to help the producer become financially successful. Borrower training is provided, for a fee, by agency approved vendors. Contact your local FSA Farm Loan Manager for a list of approved vendors.
For more information about FSA Loan programs, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov.
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USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has implemented pre-authorized debit (PAD) for Farm Loan Program (FLP) borrowers. PAD is a voluntary and alternative method for making weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual payments on loans.
PAD payments are pre-authorized transactions that allow the National Financial and Accounting Operations Center (NFAOC) to electronically collect loan payments from a customer’s account at a financial institution.
PAD may be useful if you use nonfarm income from regular wages or salary to make payments on loans or adjustment offers or for payments from seasonal produce stands. PAD can only be established for future payments.
To request PAD, customers, along with their financial institution, must fill out form RD 3550-28. This form has no expiration date, but a separate form RD 3550-28 must be completed for each loan to which payments are to be applied. A fillable form can be accessed on the USDA Rural Development (RD) website at rd.usda.gov/publications/regulations-guidelines. Click forms and search for “Form 3550-28.”
If you have a “filter” on the account at your financial institution, you will need to provide the financial institution with the following information: Origination ID: 1220040804, Agency Name: USDA RD DCFO.
PAD is offered by FSA at no cost. Check with your financial institution to discuss any potential cost. Preauthorized debit has no expiration date, but you can cancel at any time by submitting a written request to your local FSA office. If a preauthorized debit agreement receives three payment rejections within a three-month period, the preauthorized debit agreement will be cancelled by FSA. The payment amount and due date of your loan is not affected by a cancellation of preauthorized debit. You are responsible to ensure your full payment is made by the due date.
For more information about PAD, contact your local USDA Service Center and/or visit fsa.usda.gov.
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This year's essay contest invites you to dive into a topic that directly impacts your community. Write an essay telling us your thoughts about the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Tribal Advisory Group Committee (TAC). The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 led to the creation of the TAC, a group dedicated to advising the Secretary of Agriculture on matters concerning Tribal and Indian affairs. This committee plays a crucial role in ensuring that the voices of Indian Country are heard at the highest levels, and we want to encourage you to share your voice with the TAC. This is your opportunity to tell us what recommendations you would have for USDA to shape the future of Indian agriculture if you were on the TAC—start writing and let your ideas make a difference!
By participating, you could win a full travel scholarship to attend the 2024 IAC Youth Conference in Las Vegas, and three finalists will be selected as keynote speakers at the IAC Annual Conference.
ELIGIBILITY
- Must either be enrolled in a Federally Recognized Tribe OR a direct descendant of a Federally Recognized Tribe.
- Must be entering grades 9-12 during the 2023-2024 schoolyear.
- Must be a high school student ages 14-18.
- Alternative accommodations in submitting an essay are available for those who need them. Please email: sunshine@indianag.org for instructions
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Monday, October 7, 2024
Read more here: https://indianag.org/youth#youth-essay-contest
Montana IAC Points of Contact:
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The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Montana is accepting applications for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE), and Agricultural Land Easements (ALE). There are several dates to be aware of for the current funding cycle of these programs.
- ALE Inflation Reduction Act: Oct. 4, 2024
- EQIP: Oct. 25, 2024
- RCPP Land Management and Rentals: Oct. 11, 2024
- RCPP Entity Held Easements: Nov. 1, 2024
- ALE Farm Bill: Nov. 29, 2024
- WRE Farm Bill: Nov. 1, 2024
- CSP Classic: Dec. 27, 2024
“NRCS provides funding and technical assistance to help farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners implement conservation practices that improve their environmental and economic sustainability,” said Tom Watson, NRCS State Conservationist for Montana. “Conservation work focused on local outcomes with the support of local partners and land managers achieves meaningful conservation across a landscape. These opportunities are open to ag operations of any scale.”
Full News Release is now available with more information.
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Have you participated in our Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) in the last three years? If so, we want to hear from you!
To continually improve our flagship conservation program, we're asking our EQIP customers to participate in a survey. (Note that if you've already completed the survey, please do not submit a second response.) It's open right now through September 10, 2024.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced changes to the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) beginning with the 2025 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding coverage options to additional crops as well as increasing premium support to make the policy more affordable for producers.
“The Risk Management Agency is continually responding to producer needs and adapting our insurance coverage options to give producers more choices when it comes to managing their risks,” said RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger. “This expansion is part of RMA’s larger effort to provide more options for specialty crop producers.”
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USDA NASS will be conducting the September Agricultural Survey. This survey asks producers opinion of their current harvested acres and yield expectations.
NASS will also be visiting grain elevators and producers to collect grain samples for the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee Wheat and Barley Quality Survey.
NASS will also start conducting the Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey the end of September. This survey will examine conservation practices.
Thank you, producers, for taking the time to share your story. To find results of NASS surveys please visit:
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Montana/index.php
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Eric Sommer State Statistician, Montana at 1-800-392-3202.
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Biological control (biocontrol) was successfully used in the United States for the first time in 1888 when USDA’s Chief Entomologist Charles Valentine Riley introduced an Australian beetle (Rodolia cardinalis) to combat cottony cushion scale in California’s citrus groves. Decades later, the USDA Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) staff carry on Riley’s foundational work. They continue to approve and release biocontrol agents that support U.S. agriculture, natural resources, human and/or animal health, and domestic and international trade.
“We are committed to safe and effective biocontrol,” said PPQ National Policy Manager Ron Weeks. “PPQ’s three core functional areas—Policy and Management, Field Operations and Science and Technology—are responsible for the biocontrol activities we deliver and those we support through cooperative agreements. Last year the program funded and provided oversight for 31 agreements in 22 States. One such agreement is PPQ’s long-standing support of the Montana Biocontrol Coordination Project (MTBCP).”
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Montana
USDA Farm Service Agency
PO Box 670
Bozeman, MT 59771
Phone: 406.587.6872
Fax: 855.546.0264
Web: www.fsa.usda.gov/mt
State Executive Director:
MAUREEN WICKS
State Committee:
RYAN LANKFORD
CASEY BAILEY
JAKE MERKEL
TRACEY L. PETERSON
LOLA RASK
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FSA Policy Reminders: 2024 Annual Notification to FSA Customers
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USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
10 East Babcock Street, Room 443
Bozeman, MT 59715-4704
Phone: 406-587-6811
Fax: 855-510-7028
Web: nrcs.usda.gov/montana
State Conservationist: TOM WATSON
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USDA Risk Management Agency-Billings Regional Office
3490 Gabel Road, Suite 100
Billings, MT 59102-7302
Phone: 406-657-6447
Fax: 406-657-6573
Email: rsomt@rma.usda.gov
Web: https://www.rma.usda.gov/
Regional Director: ERIC BASHORE
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