West River Eagle

U.S. Department of Agriculture/Farm Service Agency News



The Corson, Dewey, Meade, Perkins and Ziebach County FSA offices would like to keep you informed of the following items important to USDA programs. If you have any questions, please contact the following offices at:

– Corson County FSA: 605-273-4506 Ext. 2

– Dewey County FSA: 605-865-3522 Ext. 2 

– Meade County FSA: 605-347-4952 Ext. 2

– Perkins County FSA: 605-244-5222 Ext. 2 

– Ziebach County FSA: 605-365-5179 Ext. 2

FSA Calendar deadlines

October 17, 2022: ARC and PLC Sign-up began

November 7, 2022: Ballots mailed for County Committee Elections

December 5, 2022: Deadline to return County Committee Ballots to FSA Office or postmarked.

December 16, 2022: Deadline to return Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase 1 Applications 

December 26, 2022: USDA Service Center Closed in observance of Christmas.

January 30, 2023: Deadline to request all ELAP assistance for 2022 Calendar Year losses.

January 30, 2023: Deadline to request LFP assistance for 2022 Calendar Year losses.

March 15, 2023: 2023 Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) Signup-Deadline

December Interest Rates

Farm Loan Program Interest Rates: 5.125% – Farm Operating Loans, Direct; 5.000% – Farm Ownership Loans, Direct; 3.000% – Farm Ownership, Joint Financing; 1.500% – Farm Ownership Loans, Beginning Farmer Down Payment. 

Farm Storage Facility Loan Program Interest Rates: 4.375% – Farm Storage Facility Loans, 3-Year; 4.125% – Farm Storage Facility Loans, 5-Year; 4.125% – Farm Storage Facility Loans, 7-Year; 4.000% – Farm Storage Facility Loans, 10-Year.

Office notes

– Leased land: County Offices are currently administering the Livestock Forage Program and Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Both of these programs require leases to be reviewed by the County Committee to determine if the lease conveys control to the lessee and if the lessee is at risk of a loss of production. If you have not provided a current lease or a current CCC-855 to your office the leased acres are not eligible for benefits until documentation is provided. If producers chose to request benefits on leased land, it is their responsibility to provide the appropriate documentation to their local FSA office.

– Update your records: FSA is cleaning up our producer record database and needs your help. Please report any changes of address, zip code, phone number, email address or an incorrect name or business name on file to our office. You should also report changes in your farm operation, like the addition of a farm by lease or purchase. You should also report any changes to your operation in which you reorganize to form a Trust, LLC or other Legal Entity. FSA and NRCS program participants are required to promptly report the changes in their farming operation to the County Committee in writing and to update their Farm Operating Plan on form CCC-902. To update your records, contact your County USDA Service Center.

– Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP): Notice of Loss must be filed within 30 days of when the loss is apparent for livestock and farm-raised fish losses. A Notice of Loss must be file prior to hauling water to livestock, hauling livestock to feed and feed transportation. Assistance is available for eligible producers to haul water to livestock and livestock to feed and hauling feed above normal. Water hauling is now available to producers past the end of the grazing season. Call your local FSA Office for more information.

– Noninsured Assistance Program (NAP): Notice of Loss must be filed within 15 days of when the loss is apparent. Each County Committee is required to establish loss areas prior to the grazing season. Losses are required to be determined for each established area. Losses cannot be determined until after the grazing season ends which is October 15, 2022. 

– Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP): Notice of Loss must be filed within 30 days of when the loss is apparent.

– Ziebach County FSA office email address: The Ziebach County FSA Office is asking that all email correspondence be sent to the following address: sddupree-fsa@usda.gov. The Ziebach County FSA Office has limited staff, and this will ensure that your email is reaching a current Ziebach County FSA Office employee.

USDA expands Farmers.gov to include farm records

Producers with farmers.gov accounts can now access farm records and maps online, the latest self-service feature added to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website.

You can quickly and easily access your land information in real time by desktop computer, tablet or phone. Capabilities include:

– View, print and export detailed farm records such as cropland, base acres, yields, CRP acres, land ownership details, and much more;

– View, print and export farm/tract maps that can be provided to lenders, chemical or fertilizer providers, and FSA for reporting acreage and crop insurance agents; and

– Export common land unit (field) boundaries as ESRI shapefiles.

The ability to access these records on demand without a visit to the service center saves you time and money.

Farmers.gov now includes the most popular functionalities from FSAFarm+, the FSA portal for producers, while providing enhanced functionality and an improved user experience. A new enhancement expands the scope of accessibility to include farmers and ranchers who are members of an entity, as well as people with a power of attorney form (FSA-211) on file with FSA.

Managing USDA Business Online

Using farmers.gov, producers, entities and those acting on their behalf can also:

– View, upload, download, and e-sign conservation documents.

– Request financial assistance, including submitting a program application.

– View and submit conservation requests.

– View technical references and submit questions.

– Access information on current and past conservation practices, plans and contracts.

– Report practice completion and request practice certification.

– View farm loan and interest information (producers only).

Future plans include adding the ability to import and view other shapefiles, such as precision agriculture planting boundaries.

To access your information, you’ll will need a USDA eAuth account to login to farmers.gov. After obtaining an eAuth account, producers should visit farmers.gov and sign into the site’s authenticated portal via the Sign In/Sign Up link at the top right of the website. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge are the recommended browsers to access the feature.

In addition to the self-service features available by logging into farmers.gov, the website also has ample information on USDA programs, including pandemic assistance, farm loans, disaster assistance, conservation programs and crop insurance. 

Recently, USDA updated the navigation and organization of the site as well as added some new webpages, including “Get Involved,” “Common Forms,” and “Translations.” Learn more about these changes.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (866) 632-9992 or (toll-free Customer Service), (800) 877-8339 (local or Federal relay), (866) 377-8642 (Relay voice users). 

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