This edition of Farm Service Agency News will sound a lot like last week’s article for those that read it. However, some new info has become available since USDA announced last week that FSA can go back to processing CRP general sign-up offers for contract that must go through the general sign-up process and are expiring this Sept. 30.
There had been rumors that USDA might extend the General CRP sign-up when processing of new offers was put on hold for a week. But last week the hold was lifted, and the FSA county offices were notified that the deadline would remain March 11, 2022.
As I stated last week, we have contacted everyone with expiring General CRP acreage. Most participants have already made their decision to reoffer their expiring CRP acres.
Once again, this does not affect producers with CRP contracts that were enrolled under a Continuous CRP sign-up. That reoffer period does not begin until April 1.
The letter that participants received from the national office is confusing because the letter talks about General sign-up competitive bed contracts and continuous non-competitive bid contracts that are expiring this September. We have the contract shortened into the different crops at the Tallahatchie FSA office and know who to contact if we do not hear from them once the sign-up has begun. We do still have a few participants that have not completed their reoffers with our office.
Also, this is the final reminder that Tuesday, March 15, is the deadline for 2021 ARC/PLC program annual sign-up and reporting cover crops planted last fall to FSA for premium discount credit with crop insurance under the Pandemic Relief Act of 2021. This will be the last issue of the paper before all these deadlines have pasted.
Finally, March 15, 2022, is the deadline for producers planting cotton in 2022 to remove their seed cotton program participation flag from each farm they intend to plant cotton if the producer chose to take out the STAX supplemental cotton crop insurance coverage with their federal crop insurance agent/company. Risk Management Agency, which administers the federal crop insurance program through private companies, will verify all producers that selected 2022 STAX coverage and make sure the producer withdrew from the FSA 2022 seed cotton program before March. Failure to do so will make anyone selecting STAX ineligible for 2022 STAX crop insurance coverage.
If a producer that plants cotton this year is not participating in STAX, then there are no changes to make with FSA office.
