FSA Andy for Oct. 22, 2009

Hello, friends!

October is always one of the most active months of the year around my house. Routines are being set for school, fall sports are getting into high gear and, of course, the combines are in the field. We try to take a little time out each year to go on one of the fall foliage tours that are so popular in this part of Ohio.

This year we drove on the local Coshocton County Fall Foliage and Farm tour. While temperatures were a little on the cool side, it did not dampen our spirits at all. The kids really enjoyed the miniature trains. They even got to take a ride. I always like the farm stops. That is my opportunity to get out on some farms that I don’t normally visit. My wife just likes the ride. She always packs her camera with her and gets some great photos.

October always brings with it a little activity around the FSA office as well. I think many other FSA employees will agree that we like issuing payments to farmers much more than we like collecting them back. And this is the month for issuing payments.

Both annual payments for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and final 2009 direct payments under the Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment (DCP) program are being processed.

Normally, the majority of these payments are processed in the first two weeks of October. And for some of you, that is still the case. This year, however, FSA has implemented a new system for issuing these payments. The button to issue payments is no longer being pushed by your local FSA program technician. The trigger now resides in a central location in Kansas City, Mo. Once that button is pushed, the payment information is sent back to the county office for verification. Once verified, the local office then transmits the information to the New Orleans processing center for payment.

Quick and easy, right? Well, there have already been a few glitches detected in the system for certain types of operations. Please be patient while the kinks are worked out. The goal is to get all payments wrapped up by the end of October.

And as we wrap up DCP payments for the 2009 crop year, the clock has also started ticking on the 2010 crop year. Producers can now come in and enroll their farms for 2010 and receive the same 22 percent advance payment they did this year. For 2010, both the DCP enrollment and the ACRE election must be made by June 1. As of now, the ACRE decision will not stretch into August like it did in 2009.

So be watching for our fall payments, and remember to practice farm safety as fall harvest rolls on.

That’s all for now,