Be on the lookout for FSA payments hitting your account

After the beginning of the new Fiscal Year, Oct. 1 of every year, certain FSA Program benefit payments are dispersed. The income support programs Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) as well as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). ARC/PLC Payments for Market Year 2020 County ARC (ARC-CO) payments are triggered when the actual county crop revenue of a covered commodity is less than the ARC-CO guarantee for the covered commodity. ARC- Individual Coverage (ARC-IC) program payments are issued when the actual individual crop revenue for all covered commodities planted on the ARC-IC farm is less than the ARC-IC guarantee for those covered commodities. PLC program payments are issued when the effective price of a covered commodity is less than the respective reference price for that commodity. The effective price equals the higher of the market year average price or the national average loan rate for the covered commodity. Payments for PLC, ARC-CO and ARC-IC, when triggered, will be issued after October 1 of the year following the program year. October of 2021, payments have been triggered for market year 2020 for the PLC program for farms with wheat and barley base acres in Huron and Erie Counties. For ARC-CO, farms with wheat base acres will receive payments. For ARC-IC, since payments are triggered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the actual farm revenue and planted acres, payments could be triggered for corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and/or barley. CRP Payments for 2021 FSA provides CRP participants with annual rental payments in return for establishing long-term and resource-conserving plant species to control soil erosion, improve water quality, and develop wildlife habitat. FSA bases rental rates on the relative productivity of the soils within each county and the average cash rent using data provided by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Payments dispersed for CRP in October of 2021 are for enrolled CRP contracts from program year 2020. If you enrolled new land in 2021 into CRP, you will receive your first annual rental payment in October of 2022. If you still receive mailed printed checks please contact the Huron/Erie FSA Office to set-up Direct Deposits for quicker payment processing. For questions or concerns about your payment(s) or to inquire about FSA program benefits, please contact Huron/Erie FSA Office. USDA Launches First Phase of Soil Carbon Monitoring Efforts through CRP The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $10 million in a new initiative to sample, measure, and monitor soil carbon on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres to better quantify the climate outcomes of the program. CRP is an important tool in the Nation's fight to reduce the worst impacts of climate change facing our farmers, ranchers, and foresters. This initiative will begin implementation in fall 2021 with three partners. Today's announcement is part of a broader, long-term soil carbon monitoring effort across agricultural lands that supports USDA's commitment to deliver climate solutions to agricultural producers and rural America through voluntary, incentive-based solutions. These models include the Daily Century Model, or DayCent, which simulates the movement of carbon and nitrogen through agricultural systems and informs the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Data will also be used to strengthen the COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner tools, which enable producers to evaluate potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reductions based on specific management scenarios. USDA partners will conduct soil carbon sampling on three categories of CRP practice types: perennial grass, trees, and wetlands. Perennial grasses: In consultation with USDA, Michigan State University will sample and measure soil carbon and bulk density of CRP grasslands (including native grass plantings, rangelands, and pollinator habitat plantings) at an estimated 600 sites across the U.S. with a focus in the central states during this five-year project. This information will be used to model and compare the climate benefits of CRP. Partners include the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Deveron, an agriculture technology company, and Woods End Laboratories. Trees: Mississippi State University will partner with Alabama A&M University to collect above and below ground data at 162 sites across seven states documenting CRP-related benefits to soil and atmospheric carbon levels. Information will help further calibrate the DayCent model. This five-year project will focus within the Mississippi Delta and Southeast states. Wetlands: Ducks Unlimited and its partners will collect data on carbon stocks in wetland soils as well as vegetation carbon levels at 250 wetland sites across a 15-state area in the central U.S. Data will support the DayCent and additional modeling. Partners for this five-year project include: Migratory Bird Joint Venture, Intertribal Research and Resource Center at United Tribes Technical College, Clemson University, Kenyon College, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Texas at Austin. FROM THE HURON/ERIE COUNTY FARM SERVICE AGENCY AGRI-BUSINESS NOTES FOR THE HURON AND ERIE COUNTY PRODUCERS.