Details of FSA's most active programs explained

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Feb. 12, 2004 -- Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary program available to agricultural producers to help them safeguard environmentally-sensitive land. The last sign up for this program, the 26th, and lasted from May 5 to June 13, 2003. Producers with contracts expiring between Sept. 30, 2003 or Sept. 30, 2004 were eligible to submit offers.

As with all federally- or state-funded programs, there are a number of "twists" and "turns" to be aware of, and producers who believe their land that would be appropriate for the CRP should contact their local FSA office to attain the fact sheet.

To be eligible for CRP enrollment, a producer must have owned or operated the land for at least 12 months prior to close of the CRP sign-up period. There are exceptions, such as acquiring land due to a previous owner's death, some foreclosures or the type of acquisition ... not acquiring the land for the purpose of placing it in CRP, states fact sheets from FSA.

Other additional cropland requirements include having a weighted average erosion index of 8 or higher; be expiring CRP acreage; or be located in a national or state CRP conservation priority area. Those who were eligible to access Sign-up 26 should be provided annual rental payments, including certain incentive payments and cost-share assistance.

Another program under FSA is the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC). Although counties with dairies are becoming fewer and fewer, this is a program to assist the dairy farmer.

According to the FSA, this MILC program will financially compensate dairy producers when domestic milk prices fall below a specified level. The program, authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill, has no set funding level.

Eligible dairy producers are those who between Dec. 1, 2001 and Sept. 30, 2005 plan to commercially produce and market cow milk in the United States, or produce milk in the United States and commercially market the milk outside the United States. Latest information from the FSA states the MILC payments are made on a monthly basis, when the Boston Class I milk price falls below $16.94 per hundredweight (cwt).

To apply for the MILC program, dairy producers need to submit form CCC-580, "Milk Income Loss Contract," to the FSA county office where the dairy operation is located. The form is available from FSA offices and online at http://forms.sc.egov.usda.gov/eforms/mainservlet.

Another program offered by FSA is the Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment Program (DCP) which provides payments to eligible producers on farms enrolled for the 2002 through 2007 crop years. Eligible commodities include barley, corn, grain sorghum, including dual purpose varieties that can be harvested as grain and oats. Also, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower, including oil and non-oil varieties, peanuts, rice, excluding wild rice, soybeans, upland cotton and wheat.

Eligible producers under DCP can be property owners, operators, landlords, tenants or sharecroppers who meet other eligibility requirements as listed in FSA literature found in county offices.

The Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003 extended the Livestock Compensation Program (LCP), and is an emergency initiative administered by the FSA. It provides immediate assistance to eligible owners and cash lessees of certain types of livestock for damages and losses due to any natural disaster. This program provides direct payments to eligible livestock producers, says FSA.

Eligible types of livestock include adult beef cattle, buffalo, beefalo and adult dairy cattle. Also beef, dairy buffalo and beefalo replacement heifers (500 lbs. and over) on June 1, 2002; beef, dairy buffalo and beefalo steers (500 lbs. and over), on June 1, 2002; non-breeding beef, dairy buffalo and beefalo heifers; beef, dairy buffalo and beefalo bulls (500 lbs. and over), on June 1, 2002; all sheep born prior to June 1, 2002 and all goats born prior to June 1, 2002 are included in eligibility requirements. Further requirements are available at the local FSA offices.

One of the largest programs under the USDA, the FSA makes and guarantees loans to family farmers and ranchers to purchase farmland and finance agricultural production. These loan programs are designed to help family farmers who are temporarily unable to obtain private commercial credit. In some cases, these are beginning farmers with little net worth, and in other cases, they are farmers who have suffered financial setbacks from natural disasters, or who have limited resources with which to establish and maintain profitable farming operations. There are, also, emergency loans, in certain situations, as well as Rural Youth Loans which are used for 4-H Club or FFA projects for youths.