Wisconsin Farm Service Agency- August 2025
In This Issue:
It’s great to get around the state to visit with FSA County Committees and FSA office staff. We appreciate your patience as we roll out several Supplemental Disaster Assistance programs that provide disaster recovery assistance and economic relief to farmers and livestock producers. Our FSA county offices remain busy assisting producers with these applications, but with these streamlined programs, I can assure you that applications and payments are moving quickly.
Here is what FSA is working on now:
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FSA is taking applications for Stage 1 of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, which opened on July 10. Stage 1 is for producers with indemnified losses due to eligible weather events in 2023 and 2024. We are using a streamlined, prefilled application process, and applications were mailed in July. Producers can drop off the applications at the county office or put them in the mail.
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More information will be provided at a later date for Stage 2 of SDRP, which includes uncovered, shallow losses and quality losses.
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In Wisconsin, Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) payments are being made primarily on corn, soybeans, oats and wheat. We’ve already approved close to 20,000 applications, so this is a reminder to those who haven’t submitted your application. ECAP payments are based on your 2024 planted and prevented planted acres.
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The Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) provides assistance for losses due to drought or wildfires in 2023 and 2024. Payments have already been issued to producers who have an approved Livestock Forage Disaster Program application on file for those years. A second round of ELRP will be announced at a later date for livestock producers impacted by flooding.
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Acreage reporting is mostly wrapped up around the state. Wisconsin FSA employees take more than a million crop reports every year!
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Grassland CRP signup runs through August 8. This program helps landowners protect grasslands, including for rangeland and pastureland, while maintaining the land for grazing.
State Executive Director, Wisconsin FSA
August 8, 2025: Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Deadline
August 13 & 14, 2025: Beginning Farmer and Rancher Veterans Webinar Series
August 15, 2025: Acreage Reporting deadline for Beans (all other types not listed under the July 15th deadline), Cabbage, Cucumbers
August 15, 2025: Deadline to submit applications for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP)
August 26, 2025: Soil Health Field Day at the Treinen Family Farm
September 1, 2025: USDA Service Centers closed in observance of Labor Day
Current loan rates as of August 1, 2025.
Please visit the Farm Loan Program webpage for more information.
Farm Loan Interest Rates:
| Farm Operating - Direct |
5.000% |
| Farm Operating - Microloan |
5.000% |
| Farm Ownership - Direct |
6.000% |
| Farm Ownership - Microloan |
6.000% |
| Farm Ownership - Direct, Joint Financing |
4.000% |
| Farm Ownership - Down Payment |
2.000% |
| Emergency - Amount of Actual Loss |
3.750% |
Farm Storage Facility Loans (FSFL):
| 3-year FSFL |
3.750% |
| 5-year FSFL |
3.875% |
| 7-year FSFL |
4.125% |
| 10-year FSFL |
4.375% |
| 12-year FSFL |
4.500% |
USDA announced that agricultural producers and private landowners can now enroll in the Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (Grassland CRP). The sign-up runs from July 14 to Aug. 8, 2025. Grassland CRP, offered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), is a voluntary working lands conservation program that enables participants to conserve grasslands while also continuing most grazing and haying practices.
Grassland CRP emphasizes support for grazing operations, plant and animal biodiversity, and grasslands and land with shrubs and forbs under the greatest threat of conversion.
CRP, USDA’s flagship conservation program, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. For four decades, CRP has provided financial and technical support to agricultural producers and landowners whose accepted acres are placed under contract for 10-15 years and who agree to voluntarily convert the land to beneficial vegetative cover to improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and support wildlife habitat. The American Relief Act, 2025, extended provisions for CRP through Sept. 30, 2025.
Currently, more than 25.8 million acres are enrolled in CRP, with nearly 9.7 million acres in Grassland CRP. On May 12, FSA opened General and Continuous CRP enrollment for 2025. FSA is currently reviewing submitted offers and will announce accepted offers at a later date. Due to the 27-million-acre statutory cap, only 1.8 million acres are available for all CRP enrollment this fiscal year.
Landowners and producers interested in Grassland CRP should contact their local USDA Service Center to learn more or apply for the program before the Aug. 8 deadline.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that agricultural producers who suffered eligible crop losses due to natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can now apply for $16 billion in assistance through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP).
To expedite the implementation of SDRP, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is delivering assistance in two stages. This first stage is open to producers with eligible crop losses that received assistance under crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program during 2023 and 2024. Stage One sign up started in-person at FSA county offices on July 10 and prefilled applications were mailed to producers starting July 9. SDRP Stage Two signups for eligible shallow or uncovered losses will begin in early fall.
SDRP Stage One
FSA is launching a streamlined, pre-filled application process for eligible crop, tree, and vine losses by leveraging existing Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) and Risk Management Agency (RMA) indemnified loss data. The pre-filled applications were mailed on July 9, 2025.
Eligibility
Eligible losses must be the result of natural disasters occurring in calendar years 2023 and/or 2024. These disasters include wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought, and related conditions.
To qualify for drought related losses, the loss must have occurred in a county rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D2 (severe drought) for eight consecutive weeks, D3 (extreme drought), or greater intensity level during the applicable calendar year.
Producers in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, and Massachusetts will not be eligible for SDRP program payments. Instead, these states chose to cover eligible crop, tree, bush, and vine losses through separate block grants. These block grants are funded through the $220M provided for this purpose to eligible states in the American Relief Act.
How to Apply
To apply for SDRP, producers must submit the FSA-526, Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) Stage One Application, in addition to having other forms on file with FSA.
SDRP Stage One Payment Calculation
Stage One payments are based on the SDRP adjusted NAP or Federal crop insurance coverage level the producer purchased for the crop. The net NAP or net federal crop insurance payments (NAP or crop insurance indemnities minus administrative fees and premiums) will be subtracted from the SDRP calculated payment amount.
For Stage One, the total SDRP payment to indemnified producers will not exceed 90% of the loss and an SDRP payment factor of 35% will be applied to all Stage One payments. If additional SDRP funds remain, FSA may issue a second payment.
Future Insurance Coverage Requirements
All producers who receive SDRP payments are required to purchase federal crop insurance or NAP coverage for the next two available crop years at the 60% coverage level or higher. Producers who fail to purchase crop insurance for the next two available crop years will be required to refund the SDRP payment, plus interest, to USDA.
SDRP Stage 2
FSA will announce additional SDRP assistance for uncovered losses, including non-indemnified shallow losses and quality losses and how to apply later this fall.
Learn more by visiting fsa.usda.gov/sdrp.
Agricultural producers of perishable commodities including fruits, vegetables and floriculture can now get funding for controlled atmosphere storage through Farm Storage Facility Loans (FSFL) offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA). Controlled atmosphere storage regulates the concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen in a storage room to increase the shelf life of crops.
In addition to now supporting controlled atmosphere storage, FSFLs also provide low-interest financing to help producers build or upgrade storage facilities and to purchase portable (new or used) structures, equipment and storage and handling trucks.
The low-interest funds can also be used for controlled atmosphere storage monitoring equipment, designed to notify facility owners immediately if potential atmospheric concerns are detected. Producers may renovate existing storage facilities to include controlled atmosphere storage monitoring equipment. Authorized loan terms for FSFL renovations are three and five years only.
To assist with monitoring gases and particle concentrations for controlled atmosphere storage, the following equipment, but not limited to, is eligible for an FSFL:
- Optical oxygen sensor.
- Low power CO2 sensor.
- Air quality sensor.
- Gas detection devices.
- Air temperature and relative humidity sensor.
- Water activity meter.
- Temperature stabilized water activity analyzer.
- Precision and performance humidity and temperature transmitter.
Loans of up to $50,000 can be secured by a promissory note/security agreement, loans between $50,000 and $100,000 may require additional security and loans exceeding $100,000 require additional security.
FSFL borrowers do not need to demonstrate lack of commercial credit availability to apply. The loans are designed to assist a diverse range of agricultural operations, including small and mid-sized businesses, new farmers and ranchers, operations supplying local food and farmers markets, non-traditional farm products and underserved producers.
For more information, see the FSFL fact sheet and contact FSA at your local USDA Service Center.
DeForest, WI | August 26, 2025
It’s time to dig deep into soil health and conservation. Gather for an informative day of soil health instruction and demonstrations at the Treinen Family Farm.
Join Groundswell Conservancy and members of The Wisconsin Farmland Protection Partnership for a Dig into Soil Health Field Day on Tuesday, August 26th from 9am-12pm.
Learn about soil health practices, dairy heifer grazing, and manure composting at the Treinen Family Farm. Hear from local conservation experts about farmland protection programs, producer-led conservation initiatives, financial resources for implementation, and much more!
Please dress for the weather and walking on a working farm.
Click here to register and secure your free lunch.
In order to claim a Farm Service Agency (FSA) payment on behalf of a deceased producer, all program conditions for the payment must have been met before the applicable producer’s date of death.
If a producer earned an FSA payment prior to his or her death, the following is the order of precedence for the representatives of the producer:
- administrator or executor of the estate
- the surviving spouse
- surviving sons and daughters, including adopted children
- surviving father and mother
- surviving brothers and sisters
- heirs of the deceased person who would be entitled to payment according to the State law
For FSA to release the payment, the legal representative of the deceased producer must file a form FSA-325 to claim the payment for themselves or an estate. The county office will verify that the application, contract, loan agreement, or other similar form requesting payment issuance, was signed by the applicable deadline by the deceased or a person legally authorized to act on their behalf at that time of application.
If the application, contract or loan agreement form was signed by someone other than the deceased participant, FSA will determine whether the person submitting the form has the legal authority to submit the form.
Payments will be issued to the respective representative’s name using the deceased program participant’s tax identification number. Payments made to representatives are subject to offset regulations for debts owed by the deceased.
FSA is not responsible for advising persons in obtaining legal advice on how to obtain program benefits that may be due to a participant who has died, disappeared or who has been declared incompetent.
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Wisconsin Farm Service Agency
8030 Excelsior Drive
Suite 100
Madison, WI 53717
Phone: 608-662-4422
State Executive Director
Sandy Chalmers
sandra.chalmers@usda.gov
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Deputy State Executive Director
Tyler Radke
tyler.radke@usda.gov
Farm Program Chief
Greg Biba
greg.biba@usda.gov
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Farm Loan Chief
Kristen Hibbard
kristen.hibbard@usda.gov
Farm Program Chief
John Palmer
john.palmer@usda.gov
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