 Carter County Farm Service Agency - July 24, 2025
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Carter County Committee Meeting: August 13, 2025, at 9:30am at the Carter County FSA office
- Questions? Contact Samantha Wright at samantha.wright@usda.gov
- If you would need to request an accommodation, please contact Samantha Wright at 406-775-6355 Ext.2 or Samantha.Wright@usda.gov by August 4th, 2025, to request accommodations (e.g., an interpreter, translator, seating arrangements, etc.) or materials in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape – captioning, etc.).
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USDA Carter County Farm Service Agency (FSA) reminds agricultural producers of the following FSA dates and deadlines. Contact your local FSA office for assistance.
Aug. 1, 2025: Deadline to request a farm reconstitution or farm transfer for 2025.
Aug. 1, 2025: All nomination forms for the 2025 County Committee election must be postmarked or received in the local FSA office by Aug. 1, 2025.
Aug. 8, 2025: Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (Grassland CRP) sign-up closes
Aug. 15, 2025: Deadline for producers to submit their Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) applications to their local FSA county office.
Sept. 1, 2025: Office Closure for Labor Day federal holiday.
Sept. 2, 2025: NAP application closing date for fall and spring seeded Canola and all Value Loss Crops.
September 30, 2025: Acreage Reporting Date for Value-loss and controlled environment crops (except nursery).
Sept. 30, 2025: 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.
*Note: The Acreage Reporting Date for Spring Alfalfa Seed, all other spring seeded crops, Perennial Forage, Hemp, Grazing acreage and CRP acres is 15 days before the onset of harvest or grazing, or July 15, whichever is earlier.
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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 Carter 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. For Carter County, elections will take place in LAA #03, which consist of beginning with the Powderville Rd at the Powder River County line and proceeding East to the Chalk Buttes Rd; then heading South to the Pershing Cutoff Rd; turning East on the Pershing Cutoff Rd to Hwy 323; heading North on Hwy 323 to the Prairie Dale Rd; heading East on the Prairie Dale Rd to approximately 2 miles North of Mill Iron where the Township line between 1N & 2N intersects Route 101 Rd; then heading East along this Township line to the South Dakota border. 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.
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Carter County was declared a Primary disaster due drought and heat using the Secretarial Disaster Designation process. Under this designation, 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.
For more information about emergency loans, contact your Carter County USDA Service Center at 406-775-6355 ext.2 or visit fsa.usda.gov.
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Producers in Carter County are eligible to apply for 2025 Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) benefits on small grain, native pasture, improved pasture, annual forage sorghum.
LFP provides compensation if you suffer grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or cash 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. You must complete a CCC-853 and the required supporting documentation no later than March 2, 2026, for 2025 losses.
For additional information about LFP, including eligible livestock and fire criteria, contact the Carter County USDA Service Center at 406-775-6355 ext.2 or visit fsa.usda.gov.
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ELAP provides emergency assistance to eligible livestock, honeybee, and farm-raised fish producers who have losses due to disease, adverse weather or other conditions, such as blizzards and wildfires, not covered by other agricultural disaster assistance programs.
Eligible losses include:
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Livestock - grazing losses not covered under the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), loss of purchased feed and/or mechanically harvested feed due to an eligible adverse weather event, additional cost of transporting water and feed because of an eligible drought and additional cost associated with gathering livestock to treat for cattle tick fever.
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Honeybee - loss of purchased feed due to an eligible adverse weather event, cost of additional feed purchased above normal quantities due to an eligible adverse weather condition, colony losses in excess of normal mortality due to an eligible weather event or loss condition, including CCD, and hive losses due to eligible adverse weather.
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Farm-Raised Fish - death losses in excess of normal mortality and/or loss of purchased feed due to an eligible adverse weather event.
If you’ve suffered eligible livestock, honeybee, or farm-raised fish losses during calendar year 2025, you must file a notice of loss and an application for payment by March 2, 2026.
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Carter County USDA Service Center
P.O. Box 5
308 South Mormon Ave
Ekalaka, MT 59324
Phone: 406-775-6355 Ext 2
Fax: 855-556-1271
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Sign Up to Receive Text Messaging from the Carter County FSA for Program Updates by Texting "mtcarter" to FSA-NOW (372-669)
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County Executive Director
Samantha Wright 406-775-6355 Ext 2
samantha.wright@usda.gov
Farm Loan Manager
Travis Helm 406-232-7905 Ext 2 travis.helm@usda.gov
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Program Analysts
Nancy Strain 406-775-6355 Ext 2 nancy.strain@usda.gov
Scot Willson 406-775-6355 Ext 2
scot.willson@usda.gov
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NRCS District Conservationist
Rebecca Knapp 406-775-6355 Ext 3
rebecca.knapp2@usda.gov
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Carter County Conservation District
Karen Kreitel 406-775-6355 Ext 101
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