Hello again,
November is election month and in keeping with that theme, FSA mailed out County Committee election ballots on Nov. 7. Watch your mailbox for your official county office committee election ballot. If for some reason you don’t receive a ballot, feel free to notify your county FSA office.
Completed and signed ballots must be returned to the county office by close of business Dec. 5. You may also write-in a candidate on the ballots. If you have any questions, give your FSA office a call.
Coverage available
For those of you who grow crops that you can’t get crop insurance for, FSA has NAP coverage available. Nov. 20 is the deadline for 2017 NAP coverage on apples, asparagus, blueberries, caneberries, cherries, chestnuts, forage for hay and pasture, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, strawberries, honey, maple sap and hops.
March 15, 2017 is the deadline for 2017 NAP coverage on forage sorghum, oats, potatoes, soybeans, sunflowers and all spring planted specialty crops grown for food.
There are buy-up options available that are especially helpful to beginning and socially disadvantaged producers, as well as farmers with limited resources, who will receive fee waivers and premium reductions for expanded coverage.
Give your FSA office a call and ask about NAP coverage. While we are talking about crops, did I mention that FSA has grain loans? These are nine-month, low interest loans. This is the perfect solution for year-end cash flow.
Loan rates
Every time I mention what our grain loan rates are, I hear the same moans and “I can sell my crop for way more than that.”
You are right! And here is the but. … We aren’t in the business of buying your crop.
What we are doing is utilizing it for collateral, offering you a ridiculously low loan interest rate (1.625 percent for November) and offering you a chance to prepay for fertilizer, seed, herbicides and anything else you can get a discount on.
You get operating money and get to sell when prices suit you! With as low as interest rates are, let’s say you take the loan for the whole nine months, you could be paying as little as 3 cents per bushel.
Saving money
Not to mention what you saved by being able to pre-pay for your planting supplies.
Contact your local office for more information. I almost forgot to tell you that your FSA office is also able to get your 2017 ARC-PLC contracts for you.
As of Nov. 1, we can get those contracts enrolled for you for 2017.
So when you stop in to ask about NAP or commodity loans, we can get your contracts taken care of for 2017. We look forward to seeing you soon.
That’s all for now,
FSA Andy
