Producers with forage crops, or pasture (on crop ground acres), and fall-seeded small grains must provide their report of acreage by Dec. 15 for the 2014 crop.

If a producer acquires additional acreage after Dec. 15, then the acreage must be reported no later than 30 calendar days after the purchase or acquiring the lease.

Appropriate documentation must be provided to the county office in those situations.

If a perennial forage crop is reported with the intended use as a cover crop, green manure or left standing, than the acreage must be reported by July 15, 2014.

Late-filed fees will be assessed to producers who miss acreage reporting dates.

2014 planted corn and soybeans must also be reported by July 15.

Farm reconstitutions

When changes in farm ownership or operation take place, a farm reconstitution is necessary.

The reconstitution, or recon, is the process of combining or dividing farms or tracts of land based on the farming operation.

The different methods used when doing a farm recon are:

• Estate method: The division of bases, allotments and quotas for a parent farm among heirs in settling an estate.

• Designation of landowner method: May be used when part of a farm is sold or ownership is transferred; an entire farm is sold to two or more persons; farm ownership is transferred to two or more persons; part of a tract is sold or ownership is transferred; a tract is sold to two or more persons; or tract ownership is transferred to two or more persons. In order to use this method the land sold must have been owned for at least three years, or a waiver granted, and the buyer and seller must sign a memorandum of understanding.

• DCP cropland method: The division of bases in the same proportion that the DCP cropland for each resulting tract relates to the DCP cropland on the parent tract.

• Default method: The division of bases for a parent farm with each tract maintaining the bases attributed to the tract level when the reconstitution is initiated in the system.

Marketing assistance

Short-term financing is available by obtaining low interest commodity loans for eligible harvested production.

A nine-month marketing assistance loan provides financing that allows producers to store production for later marketing. The crop may be stored on the farm or in the warehouse.

Due to sequestration there will a 5.1 percent reduction in the loan amount. The interest rate currently is 1.125 percent.

Webster County loan rates per bushel are $1.89 for corn and $4.93 for soybeans.

Those loan rates are reduced by 30 percent for farms that were enrolled in the 2013 ACRE program.

Loans are available for producers who share in the risk of producing the eligible commodity and maintain beneficial interest in the crop through the duration of the loan.

Beneficial interest means retaining the ability to make decisions about the commodity, responsibility for loss because of damage to the commodity and title to the commodity.

Once beneficial interest in a commodity is lost, it is ineligible for a loan, even if you regain beneficial interest.

Election

Watch your mailbox for your official county office committee election ballots dated 11-13-2013.

Ballots will be mailed in Webster County to all eligible voters in voting townships of Jackson, Deer Creek, Johnson, Douglas, Fulton and Elkhorn on Dec. 20.

If for some reason you do not receive a ballot, notify a local FSA office.

Completed and signed ballots must be returned to the county office by close of business on Jan 17, 2014.

The FSA office will be closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.

Leners is the executive director for the Farm Services Agency in Webster County. She can reached at (515) 573-2159, Ext.100.