FSA NEWSLETTER -- SEPTEMBER 2025
 In This Issue:
Hello, Oklahoma agriculturists!
My name is Eddie Fields, and I am honored to serve as your Oklahoma Farm Service Agency State Executive Director. I come to you as a lifelong Osage County cow/calf producer and a former Oklahoma State Legislature, but more importantly, as someone who understands the challenges and rewards of working with the land.
I believe in a simple but powerful principle: Farmers First. Our farmers and ranchers form the backbone of this state. It is my mission to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you as we navigate an industry that can be both volatile and uncertain.
Whether it is drought, shifting markets, or regulatory hurdles, I know how tough this work can be. That is why I am committed to making sure Oklahoma producers have the tools, resources, and support you need to thrive. Through federal programs and partnerships, I want to ensure our state’s agriculture community has every opportunity to grow stronger for the next generation.
It is a privilege to serve the people who feed, clothe and fuel America. I look forward to the opportunities to keep Oklahoma agriculture moving forward.
Sincerely,
Eddie Fields
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USDA is issuing a second Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) payment to eligible producers for the 2024 crop year. Of the authorized $10 billion in ECAP assistance, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has already provided over $8 billion in payments to eligible producers to mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices. Read More
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced acceptance of 1.78 million acres into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) through 2025 General, Continuous, Grassland, and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program enrollments.
According to USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), about 25.8 million acres are currently enrolled in CRP, the agency’s flagship conservation program through which landowners, farmers and ranchers voluntarily convert marginal or unproductive cropland into vegetative cover that improves water quality, prevents erosion, restores wildlife habitat and in the case of Grassland CRP, enables participants to conserve grasslands while also continuing most grazing and haying practices.
FSA received offers on more than 2.6 million acres. The program’s total acreage is capped at 27 million acres for fiscal year 2025 of which 1.8 million was available for enrollment, after offsetting for expiring acres and an administrative reserve, making for a highly competitive process for those who submitted offers for CRP.
About 955,795 acres are expiring Sept. 30 this year. Producers submitted re-enrollment offers for just over 624,000 acres and offers for enrollment of new land totaled 2 million acres.
Kansas, South Dakota and Colorado hold the top three slots for accepted acres for all 2025 CRP enrollment opportunities.
The American Relief Act, 2025, extended provisions for CRP through Sept. 30, 2025.
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.
A key part of NRCS’s 90-year history was the establishment of the conservation planning process by Hugh Hammond Bennett. Bennett was the agency’s first chief and is considered the “father of soil conservation.” He believed in considering each farm’s unique conditions when developing a conservation plan.
A conservation plan is a document outlining the strategies and actions that should be taken to protect and manage natural resources on a specific area of land. It serves as a blueprint for achieving conservation goals. To develop a conservation plan, a conservation planner and the customer (farmer, rancher or landowner) collaborate during the conservation planning process.
Bennett believed that agency employees must walk the land with the customer and see their natural resource challenges and opportunities firsthand. Bennett also understood that natural resource concerns could not be treated in isolation; soil, water, air, plants, animals, and humans are all part of an integrated system that is inter-dependent.
Learn more about how conservation planning has evolved over the years.
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USDA Oklahoma State Office
100 USDA
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074
Farm Service Agency: 405-742-1130
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State Executive Director
Eddie Fields
Eddie.Fields@usda.gov
Deputy State Executive Director
Jaramie Karcher
Jaramie.Karcher@usda.gov
FSA Executive Officer
Janlyn Elwood
Janlyn.Elwood@usda.gov
State Committee Members:
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State Conservationist
Jeanne Jasper
FSA Farm Loan Chief
Larry Daniel
Larry.Daniel@usda.gov
State Office Program Chiefs:
J.D Elwood, Production and Payment Eligibility
Kimberly Haines, Conservation
Madeline Alewine, Public Relations and Outreach
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