Nebraska FSA and NRCS State Office
Electronic Newsletter - June 26, 2025
In This Issue:
As spring turns into summer, we’ve definitely noticed the transition across the state. Some areas have received timely precipitation in the right amounts, but others have, unfortunately, had to face severe weather that often accompanies the warmer months. They’ve received too much moisture in too short of a timeframe and in some cases the added impacts of hail and wind. If you have suffered damage or loss from recent extreme weather to any part of your agricultural operation, please make sure you are communicating with your FSA county office about those impacts. We aggregate damage and loss reports and may use the information to submit a request for a county-level Secretarial disaster designation, which opens up the Emergency Loan program.
With temperatures cranking up, livestock producers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with FSA's Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). LIP provides financial assistance for livestock lost above normal mortality rates due to extreme weather conditions, including excessive heat. We know you work hard to care for your livestock in all conditions, but LIP can be an important recovery tool when needed. More information on this program can be found below.
I want to acknowledge the recent work of FSA to get payments to livestock producers through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP). Funded through the American Relief Act, 2025, ELRP provided financial assistance to producers who had approved applications through the Livestock Forage Disaster Program for grazing losses due to eligible drought or wildfire in 2023 and/or 2024. By using existing LFP application information, FSA streamlined the ELRP payment process, and Nebraska producers received just over $70 million in assistance.
It’s the start of the FSA County Committee election season. Nominations for local county committee representatives are being accepted now through Aug. 1. Our county committees play an important role in your local agriculture community because they are made up of farmers and ranchers who are elected by farmers and ranchers. County Committees provide a local voice on FSA programming and county office operations. Want to learn more? Read the article below.
You also can hear directly from a member of the Dundy County FSA Committee, Caitlin Roundtree, in this spotlight article. Then stop in and visit your office’s County Executive Director for additional information on your local election.
In closing, don’t forget the July 15 deadline for certification of spring-planted crops, perennial forage (pastures) and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres. Contact your county FSA office on this if you haven’t already.
That’s all for this month. Stay cool and talk to you in July.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) is now accepting nominations for county committee members and encourages all farmers, ranchers, and FSA program participants to take part in the County Committee election nomination process.
Elections will occur in certain Local Administrative Areas (LAA) for members. LAAs are elective areas for FSA committees in a single county or multi-county jurisdiction. Customers can identify which LAA they or their farming or ranching operation is in by using our GIS locator tool available at fsa.usda.gov/elections.
County committee members make important decisions about how Federal farm programs are administered locally. All nomination forms for the 2025 election must be postmarked or received in the local FSA office by Aug. 1, 2025.
Agricultural producers who participate or cooperate in a USDA program and reside in the LAA that is up for election this year, may be nominated for candidacy for the county committee. A cooperating producer is someone who has provided information about their farming or ranching operation to FSA, even if they have not applied or received program benefits.
Individuals may nominate themselves or others and qualifying organizations may also nominate candidates. USDA encourages minority producers, women, and beginning farmers or ranchers to nominate, vote and hold office.
Nationwide, more than 7,700 dedicated members of the agricultural community serve on FSA county committees. The committees are made up of 3 to 11 members who serve three-year terms. Committee members are vital to how FSA carries out disaster programs, as well as conservation, commodity and price support programs, county office employment and other agricultural issues.
For more information on FSA county committee elections, including fact sheets, nomination forms and FAQs, visit fsa.usda.gov/elections.
Farmers and ranchers know all too well that natural disasters can be a common, and likely a costly, variable to their operation. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) has emergency assistance programs to provide assistance when disasters strike, and for some of those programs, a disaster designation may be the eligibility trigger. When natural disaster occurs, there is a process for requesting a USDA Secretarial disaster designation for a county. You can play a vital role in this process.
If you have experienced a production loss or other agricultural impacts as a result of a natural disaster you may submit a request to your local FSA county office for your county to be evaluated for a Secretarial disaster designation. Once a request is received, the county office will collect disaster data and create a Loss Assessment Report. The County Emergency Board will review the Loss Assessment Report and determine if a recommendation is sent forward to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for the designation.
For more information on FSA disaster programs and disaster designations, visit fsa.usda.gov/disaster.
The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) provides assistance to you for livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality caused by adverse weather, disease and attacks by animals reintroduced into the wild by the federal government or protected by federal law. This may include losses due to excessive heat.
For disease losses, FSA county committees can accept veterinarian certifications that livestock deaths were directly related to adverse weather and unpreventable through good animal husbandry and management.
For 2025 livestock losses, you must file a notice of loss, provide the following supporting documentation, and application for payment to your local FSA office by March 2, 2026.
- Proof of death documentation
- Copy of grower’s contracts
- Proof of normal mortality documentation
- Livestock beginning inventory documentation
USDA has established normal mortality rates for each type and weight range of eligible livestock, i.e. Adult Beef Cow = 1.5% and Non-Adult Beef Cattle = 5%. These established percentages reflect losses that are considered expected or typical under “normal” conditions.
For more information, contact your county FSA office or visit fsa.usda.gov.
To comply with program eligibility requirements, all producers are encouraged to contact their County FSA office to file an accurate acreage certification report by the applicable deadline.
The acreage reporting deadline for all spring-seeded crops, Conservation Reserve Program acres, perennial grass acres and cover crop acres is July 15, 2025. Prevented planted acres normally must be reported within 15 days of the final planting date of the crop, but see article below for updated policy this season. Failed acres should be reported before destruction of the crop, if applicable.
Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) policy holders should note that the acreage reporting date for NAP covered crops is the earlier of the date listed above or 15 calendar days before grazing or harvesting of the crop begins.
Producers who file accurate and timely acreage certification reports, including failed and prevented planted acreage, can prevent the potential loss of USDA program benefits.
For questions regarding acreage certification, producers should contact their County FSA office.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is extending the prevented planting crop reporting deadline for producers affected by spring flooding, excessive moisture, or qualifying drought.
Producers who intended to plant this spring, but were unable due to weather conditions, now have until the acreage reporting deadline for the applicable crop being claimed as prevented planting. July 15 is a major deadline for most crops, but acreage reporting deadlines vary by county and by crop.
Producers need to report prevented planting acres to retain eligibility for FSA program benefits. Normally, the prevented planting reporting deadline is 15 calendar days after the final planting date for a crop as established by FSA and the Risk Management Agency (RMA). The prevented planting reporting deadline extension only applies to FSA and does not change any RMA crop insurance reporting deadline requirements.
The extension does not apply to crops covered by FSA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). Producers should check with their local FSA office regarding prevented planting provisions for NAP-covered crops.
Producers are encouraged to contact their local FSA office as soon as possible to make an appointment to report prevented planting acres and submit their spring crop acreage report. To locate your local FSA office, visit farmers.gov/service-locator.
Several Nebraska counties have received primary or contiguous disaster designations in calendar year 2025 due to drought, using the Secretarial Disaster Designation process. Under the designations, if you have operations in any primary or contiguous county, you are eligible to apply for low interest emergency loans.
Emergency loans help you recover from production and physical losses due to drought, flooding and other natural disasters or quarantine.
You have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. You can borrow up to 100 percent of actual production or physical losses, to a maximum amount of $500,000.
To find out whether your county has received a Secretarial Disaster Designation, please visit the disaster designation information page at fsa.usda.gov. A map of designations for drought can be found here.
For more information about emergency loans, contact your county USDA Service Center.
Accessing capital to begin, extend or support a new or growing agriculture operation can be especially challenging to new producers. Farm Service Agency’s “Beginning Farmer” direct and guaranteed loan programs provide an opportunity for qualified applicants to secure loans from funding set aside for producers who meet the following conditions:
- Has operated a farm for not more than 10 years
- Will materially and substantially participate in the operation of the farm
- Agrees to participate in any loan assessment and borrower training required by Agency regulations
- Does not own a farm in excess of 30 percent of the county’s average size farm.
For more information contact your County FSA office. To find your nearest office, visit farmers.gov.
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is sometimes misunderstood. It is perceived by some as complicated or not for small operations, and neither of those perceptions is true. CSP is designed to help you take your existing conservation efforts on your operation to the next higher level while maintaining your current ones. It’s supposed to help you add to what you’re already doing, either by enhancing your current practices or adding new ones.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) works one-on-one with you to develop a conservation plan under CSP to implement these additions or enhancements and help strengthen your operation.
Under CSP, you receive annual payments to help you maintain your existing conservation efforts and enhance them using new conservation practices or activities. CSP contracts last five years, with the opportunity to compete for a contract renewal if you successfully fulfill the initial contract and agree to achieve additional conservation objectives.
CSP is often misunderstood, so here are a few “myths” about the program that we want to dispel.
Myth #1: The deadline to apply for CSP in my state has already passed, so I don’t need to think about applying until next year.
Don’t wait to apply! We accept applications year-round, but funding decisions are made locally at specific times and that “ranking date” may be coming up soon in your area. If we already have your application, it will be considered at the next ranking date. Plus, if you start planning now, you will be ready for application ranking dates as they approach. See program application ranking dates for all states at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/ranking-dates.
Myth #2: Enrolling land in CSP is complicated and time-consuming.
If you have a farm and tract number (available from USDA’s Farm Service Agency) and have kept good farm records, you’re already well on your way. You just need to complete a three-page NRCS-CPA-1200 form, see Applications and Forms. You can even complete this form online if you create a farmers.gov account at https://www.farmers.gov/account.
Read more myths.
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July 4, 2025 - USDA Service Centers closed for federal holiday
July 15, 2025 - FSA deadline to report all spring-seeded crops, perennial forage and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres
July 15, 2025 – End of primary nesting season for CRP program purposes
Aug. 1, 2025 – FSA deadline for producers to request a farm transfer or a farm reconstitution
Aug. 1, 2025 – FSA deadline for producers to file nomination form for FSA County Committee candidacy
***Please note any above NAP calendar reference may not be inclusive for all NAP-covered crops; NAP participants should contact their County FSA Office to confirm important program deadlines.
OPERATING/OWNERSHIP
Farm Operating: 5%
Farm Operating – Limited Resource: 5%
Farm Operating – Microloan: 5%
Farm Ownership: 5.75%
Farm Ownership – Limited Resource: 5%
Farm Ownership - Joint Financing: 3.75%
Farm Ownership - Down Payment: 1.75%
Emergency - Actual Loss: 3.75%
FARM STORAGE FACILITY LOAN
3-year term: 3.875%
5-year term: 4%
7-year term: 4.125%
10-year term: 4.375%
12-year term: 4.5%
MARKETING ASSISTANCE
Commodity Loan: 5%
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Nebraska FSA and NRCS State Office
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Farm Service Agency
1121 Lincoln Mall Suite 330
Lincoln, NE 68508
Phone: (402) 437-5581
Fax: (844) 930-0237
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Natural Resources
Conservation Service
1121 Lincoln Mall Suite 360
Lincoln, NE 68508
Phone: (402) 437-5300
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Hilary Maricle, FSA
State Executive Director
hilary.maricle@usda.gov
FSA State Office
Tim Divis, Deputy SED
Cathy Anderson, Product. & Compliance
Pat Lechner, Price Support & Conserv.
Mark Wilke, Farm Loans
Nick Elting, Administrative Officer
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Robert Lawson, NRCS
State Conservationist
robert.lawson@usda.gov
FSA State Committee
Hilary Maricle, Acting STC
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Find your local USDA Service Center at farmers.gov.
Visit the Nebraska FSA website at www.fsa.usda.gov/ne.
Visit the Nebraska NRCS website at www.nrcs.usda.gov/ne.
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