Farm Service Agency News

Subhead
Bennett - Oglala Lakota
Body

February 29: 2023 Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) Deadline March 6: Pine Ridge Sub Office Day March 15: 2024 ARC-PLC Election Change & Enrollment Deadline March 15: 2024 NAP Application for Coverage Deadline April 3: Pine Ridge Sub Office Day A reminder to report any changes to the FSA Office. 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.

2024 ARC-PLC Elections and Enrollment: Producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARCIndividual (ARC-IC), which protects the entire farm. Although election changes for 2024 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year. Producers must submit their election by the March 15, 2024, deadline.

Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.

The following crops have an updated Effective Reference Price for 2024: - Corn: $4.01 - Soybeans $9.26 - Oats $2.76 – Wheat $5.50 Crop Insurance Considerations: ARC and PLC are part of a broader USDA safety net that also includes crop insurance and marketing assistance loans. Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC elections and enrollments can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products. Producers on farms with a PLC election can purchase Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider; however, producers on farms where ARC is the election are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres for that crop on that farm.

2024 NAP-Noninsured Assistance Program NAP provides financial assistance to producers of non-insurable crops impacted by natural disasters that result in lower yield-s, crop losses, or prevented crop planting. It covers losses on crops for which no permanent federal crop insurance program is available, including forage such as, forage oats, sudan, triticale, hay millet, etc and grazing crops.

Upcoming application deadlines for NAP coverage in Bennett-Oglala Lakota County for the 2024 production season is March 15, 2024.

For all coverage levels, the NAP service fee is the lesser of $325 per crop or $825 per producer per county, not to exceed a total of $1,950 for a producer with farming interests in multiple counties. Premiums apply for buy-up coverage. If a producer has a Socially Disadvantaged, Limited Resource, Beginning and Veteran Farmer or Rancher Certification (form CCC860) on file with FSA, all NAP-related service fees for basic coverage waived. These producers may also receive a 50% premium reduction if higher levels of coverage are elected on form CCC-471, prior to the application closing date for each crop.

In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident.