By Clint Schroeder OSU Extension

Landowners or producers with a Power of Attorney for their landowner have until September 30, 2020 to update their Price Loss Coverage (PLC) yield, also referred to as farm yield, information on file with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA). PLC yields exist for each FSA farm number and commodity. This one-time opportunity to update yield information for covered commodities was a provision in the 2018 Farm Bill. The updated yields will be used to calculate payments under the PLC program for the 2020 through 2023 crop years if market prices trigger payments. PLC yields have also been used before in disaster relief programs. There is no guarantee that farmers will have this opportunity again under future farm bills. If a farm chooses to not update their yield info the existing yields for the farm will be used. Not all updated yields will produce a higher yield. In the case where the new calculated yield for a farm and commodity is lower than the existing yield, FSA will take the higher of the two.  Producers who are currently enrolled in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) should also consider updating their yields as the option to change program election exists within the current farm bill in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Yields will be updated by submitting FSA form CCC-867 for each farm number and covered commodity. Each completed form will need to include one signature of a farm owner. If the reported yield in any year is less than 75 percent of the 2013-2017 average county yield, the yield will be substituted with 75 percent of the county average yield. For more information please contact your local FSA office.

The FSA form CCC-867 can be found here

Producers can now apply for Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) assistance through Sept. 11.

USDA extended the deadline of the $16 billion COVID-19 relief package and announced additional commodities to be covered by the program this week.

Farmers who already applied and received assistance can also expect a final payment. While producers initially received 80% of their payments to ensure availability of funding, USDA said the Farm Service Agency (FSA) will now automatically issue the remaining 20% to those eligible. Going forward, approved CFAP applicants will receive 100% of their total payment.

USDA recommends producers, especially those who have not previously worked with FSA, call 877-508-8364 to start the application process. More info on CFAP and how to apply here.

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (June 29, 2020) – During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), is partnering with the Ohio State University Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) to temporarily provide online recertification for pesticide applicators and fertilizer certificate holders whose licenses expired in spring of 2020. The online recertification will be available Monday, July 6. For commercial applicators, it will be available August 10. For more information or to register for the online recertification, visit pested.osu.edu/onlinerecert.

The online option allows private applicators and fertilizer certificate holders due for training by March 31, 2020 and commercial applicators due for training by September 30, 2020 to meet their continuing education requirements. The cost for online training is $35 for private applicators and $10 for fertilizer certification. The price per credit hour for commercial applicators is $15. If you don’t know your license number, please call ODA at 614-728-6987, choose option 1. Continue reading Ohio Department of Agriculture to Provide Online Pesticide Re-certification Opportunities →

There’s a bit of good news for Ohio farmers to counter the bad news caused by COVID-19, as well as by last year’s historic rain. In counties scheduled for property value updates in 2020—about half of Ohio’s 88 counties—the average value of farmland enrolled in the Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) program should be about 40% lower than 2017–2019, or about $665 per acre.

That’s according to projections by researchers at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

The same projections say that in counties due for property value updates in 2021—another quarter of Ohio’s counties—average CAUV values should be about 25% less than 2018–2020, or about $760 per acre.

The declines should mean lower property taxes, on average, for most of the farmers in those counties.

The projections were published in a May report by postdoctoral researcher Robert Dinterman and Ani Katchova, associate professor and farm income enhancement chair, both of CFAES’ Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.

“Less money paid in property tax will help reduce farmers’ costs and allow them to keep a greater share of the revenues they bring in,” Dinterman said. Continue reading Tax Value of Farmland Expected to Drop →

By Clint Schroeder OSU Extension

With all of the challenges that Ohio farmers have faced this year it was sometimes easy for helpful information to get lost in the shuffle. There was rampant speculation about potential government intervention and expanding safety net coverage as farmers faced multiple hardships related to the weather, as well as, the ongoing trade dispute. Details of a new round of Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments were leaked in late May and some clarity was provided in early June. On July 25th there was an official announcement regarding payment rates and eligibility requirements. This program as well as potential disaster payments have dominated the news cycle over the summer and overshadowed many details regarding the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 that was signed last December. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 is commonly referred to as the Farm Bill and there are several programs within it. Grain producers are most likely to be interested in the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs. Each of these programs are administered through the Farm Service Agency (FSA), but it is important to remember that they have different eligibility requirements and enrollment deadlines.

Continue reading FSA Program Overview for Fall 2019 →