Winneshiek County Farm Service Agency explains how fiscal cliff affected farm programs

Remember the fiscal cliff battle?  The Winneshiek County Farm Service Agency is reminding area farmers that the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012—the legislation passed by Congress to avert the "fiscal cliff"--extended the 2008 Farm Bill.  That has many implications:

FSA will begin sign-ups for Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payment Program (DCP), the Average Crop Revenue Election Program (ACRE) for 2013 crops on February 19th, The ACRE sign-up period will end on June 3rd, 2013. the DCP sign-up period will end on August 2nd.

The 2013 DCP and ACRE program provisions are unchanged from 2012, except that all eligible participants in 2013 may choose to enroll in either DCP or ACRE for the 2013 crop year. This means that eligible producers who were enrolled in ACRE in 2012 may elect to enroll in DCP in 2013 or may re-enroll in ACRE in 2013 (and vice versa).

All dairy producers' Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC)  contracts are automatically extended to September 30th. Eligible producers therefore do not need to re-enroll in MILC. Specific details regarding certain modifications to MILC will be released soon.

FSA will provide producers with information on program requirements, updates and signups as the information becomes available. Any additional details will be posted on FSA's website.