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Nevada September USDA Newsletter 

In This Issue:

• Creating a Farmers.gov Account Makes Receiving USDA Assistance Easy, Efficient
• USDA Offers Wildfire Recovery Assistance
• Keeping Livestock Inventory Records
• FSA’s Customer Kiosks Available Nationwide
• FSA Offers Joint Financing Option on Direct Farm Ownership Loans
• Progression Lending from FSA
• Western Ag Outlook – ongoing webinar series
• Efforts for 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey of Cultivated Cropland Operations Now Underway

Creating a Farmers.gov Account Makes Receiving USDA Assistance Easy, Efficient

Are you interested in working with USDA to start or grow your farm, ranch, or private forest operation, but don’t know where to start? 

Whether you’re looking to access capital or disaster assistance through USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) or address natural resource concerns on your land with assistance from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a great place to start is farmers.gov.

Farmers.gov is a one-stop shop for information about the assistance available from FSA and NRCS. The site also offers many easy-to-use tools for farmers, ranchers, and private forestland owners, whether you are reaching out for the first time or are a long-term customer with a years-long relationship with USDA.

With a farmers.gov account you can:

• Complete an AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet, prior to your first meeting with FSA and NRCS.
• View farm loan payments history from FSA.
• View cost share assistance received and anticipated from NRCS conservation programs.
• Request conservation assistance from NRCS as well as view and track your conservation plans, practices, and contracts.
• View, print, and export detailed farm records and farm/tract maps for the current year, which are particularly useful when fulfilling acreage reporting requirements.
• Print FSA-156 EZ, Abbreviated Farm Record and your Producer Farm Data Report for the current year.
• Pay FSA debt using the “Make an FSA Payment” feature
• Apply for a farm loan online, view information on your existing loans, and make USDA direct farm loan payments using the Pay My Loan feature.

Learn how to create a farmers.gov account today!

USDA Offers Wildfire Recovery Assistance

USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers disaster assistance and low-interest loan programs to assist you in your recovery efforts following wildfires or other qualifying natural disasters.

Available programs and loans include:

• Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) - provides financial assistance to producers of non-insurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory, or prevented planting occur due to natural disasters including excessive wind and qualifying drought (includes native grass for grazing).
• Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) - offers payments to eligible producers for livestock death losses in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather.
  
  
• Tree Assistance Program (TAP) – provides assistance to eligible orchardists and nursery tree growers for qualifying tree, shrub and vine losses due to natural disasters including excessive wind and qualifying drought.
• Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) - provides emergency relief for losses due to feed or water shortages, disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, which are not adequately addressed by other disaster programs.
  
  
• Emergency Loan Program – available to producers with agriculture operations located in a county under a primary or contiguous Presidential or Secretarial disaster designation. These low interest loans help producers recover from production and physical losses.
  
  
• Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) - provides emergency funding for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate land severely damaged by natural disasters; includes fence loss.

For more information on these programs, contact your County USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov/disaster.

Keeping Livestock Inventory Records

Livestock inventory records are necessary in the event of a natural disaster, so remember to keep them updated.

When disasters strike, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) can help you if you’ve suffered excessive livestock death losses and grazing or feed losses due to eligible natural disasters.

For 2025 losses through the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP), 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.

You should record all pertinent information regarding livestock inventory records including:

• Documentation of the number, kind, type, and weight range of livestock
• Beginning inventory supported by birth recordings or purchase receipts.

For more information on documentation requirements, contact your County USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov.

FSA’s Customer Kiosks Available Nationwide

The new customer kiosks from USDA’s Farm Service Agency are available at every county office nationwide. These kiosks help to streamline your visit to your local county office and easily access a variety of features such as signing FSA documents, utilizing the Loan Assistance Tool, browsing USDA programs, accessing the internet, accessing necessary personal information, and signing up for a Login.gov account, which provides access to farmers.gov level two features and other USDA and U.S. Government web resources. Future kiosk functionality enhancements include a customer check-in application, self-service option for FSA program applications and documents, financial inquiries and more.

Learn more about how FSA is modernizing our customer experience here

FSA Offers Joint Financing Option on Direct Farm Ownership Loans

The USDA Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Direct Farm Ownership loans can help farmers and ranchers become owner-operators of family farms, improve and expand current operations, increase agricultural productivity, and assist with land tenure to save farmland for future generations.

There are three types of Direct Farm Ownership Loans: regular, down payment and joint financing. FSA also offers a Direct Farm Ownership Microloan option for smaller financial needs up to $50,000.

Joint financing allows FSA to provide more farmers and ranchers with access to capital. FSA lends up to 50 percent of the total amount financed. A commercial lender, a state program or the seller of the property being purchased, provides the balance of loan funds, with or without an FSA guarantee. The maximum loan amount for a joint financing loan is $600,000, and the repayment period for the loan is up to 40 years.

The operation must be an eligible farm enterprise. Farm Ownership loan funds cannot be used to finance nonfarm enterprises and all applicants must be able to meet general eligibility requirements. Loan applicants are also required to have participated in the business operations of a farm or ranch for at least three years out of the 10 years prior to the date the application is submitted. The applicant must show documentation that their participation in the business operation of the farm or ranch was not solely as a laborer.

For more information about farm loans, contact your County USDA Service Center at or visit fsa.usda.gov.

Progression Lending from FSA

Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm loans are considered progression lending. Unlike loans from a commercial lender, FSA loans are intended to be temporary in nature. Our goal is to help you graduate to commercial credit, and our farm loan staff is available to help borrowers through training and credit counseling.

The FSA team will help borrowers identify their goals to ensure financial success. FSA staff will advise borrowers on developing strategies and a plan to meet your goals and graduate to commercial credit. FSA borrowers are responsible for the success of their farming operation, but FSA staff will help in an advisory role, providing the tools necessary to help you achieve your operational goals and manage your finances.

For more information on FSA farm loan programs, contact your County USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov

Western Ag Outlook – ongoing webinar series

Efforts for 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey of Cultivated Cropland Operations Now Underway

If you’re a farmer or other operator, you may be asked to participate in a survey to gather in-depth information about the use of conservation practices on cultivated cropland.

The 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) Survey is a joint effort between USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS will visit approximately 23,000 operators across the contiguous U.S. in August and September 2025 to determine survey eligibility. A more in-depth follow-up survey will be conducted starting in November 2025.

This is the second of three years of surveys conducted by NASS. Once surveying is complete, NRCS will combine the data with information from the National Resources Inventory, NRCS field staff, and multiple data sources to estimate environmental and management outcomes of conservation on cultivated cropland across U.S. farms. NRCS will publish the findings as a CEAP Cropland Assessment report. CEAP Cropland Assessments quantify the effects of voluntary conservation efforts across the nation’s cropland at both regional and national scales.

Learn more about the survey.

FSA/NRCS Contacts

Nevada State Office 

300 Booth Street, Suite 2081 Reno, NV 89509
775-857-8500

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