 Well good morning and welcome to this morning's webinar. My name is Dave Ripplinger. I'm an economic specialist at the NDSU Extension. NDSU Extension is happy to once again partner with FSA today to talk about or continue our webinar series on FSA programs. Today we're going to learn about ARC, PLC, and acreage reporting and we'll start with Laura Heinrich, Farm Program Director with FSA. Before we get too far again a reminder, Mariah mentioned this earlier. If you have any questions please enter them in the chat and we'll get to them at the end of the at the end of the talks. And also we will keep you on mute and have your video off to save bandwidth and give attention to our speakers. So Laura the floor is yours. About the agricultural risk coverage and price loss coverage program or ARC PLC. This program provides a safety net to farmers and ranchers when there's a substantial drop in revenue or price for covered commodities. In 2019 producers had the option of enrolling in three different programs under the ARC PLC. The first two programs price loss coverage or PLC and agricultural risk coverage county or ARC county use historic base crops and are not dependent on planting a covered commodity. PLC provides cover, excuse me, provides coverage from price losses of covered commodities and agricultural risk coverage or ARC county provides revenue loss coverage at the county level for covered commodities on the farm. Agricultural risk coverage individual or ARC IC program provides revenue loss coverage at the farm level for all acreage planted to a covered commodity across all of the producers enrolled ARC IC farms. This program does require the producer to plant a covered commodity to be eligible for a payment. So for 2019 enrollment election it did end on March 15, 2020. The program election that was made under the 2019 program will also apply to the 2020 program year and producers must enroll in the 2020 program year by June 30th of 2020. Unless that producer selected a multi-year contract option for the farm, if they did select that multi-year contract option there is no further action needed for them for the 2020 enrollment period. Right now in North Dakota we're about 85 percent complete for the 2020 enrollment period but if you're one of those 15 percent that have not enrolled we do want you to contact your local FSA office to complete an enrollment for the 2020 ARC PLC program year. Producers will have an opportunity to update their program election for the 2021 program year and that sign up will start in October of 2020. The second topic I wanted to discuss with ARC PLC is the PLC yield update. So owners will have a one-time opportunity in 2020 to update the farm PLC yield on a commodity by commodity basis. So on the farm the producer can up or the owner can update the wheat yield and not the barley yield. So it is a commodity by commodity basis for the update. The yield update uses the years 2013 through 2017 by taking a simple average of the years the crop was planted times 90 percent subject to an additional factor that we'll cover in more detail in a minute. If the yield in any one of those years 13 through 17 is less than 75 percent of the 13 through 17 county average yield then that 75 percent of the county average will be substituted for that particular year. So to dive into the calculation a little bit further so the producer simple average yield that to determine the simple average yield if the crop was planted in two years we'll add the yield for both of those years together and then divide by two. If that commodity was only planted once in 2013 through 2017 we'll take that one year times 90 percent times that additional factor and that additional factor is obtained by dividing the average of the 2008 through 2012 average national yield for the cover commodity by the average of the 13 through 17 average national yield for the cover commodity. This factor can't be lower than 90 percent or exceed 100 percent. This is the factors that additional factor that's applied for each cover commodity. So what resources do we have available for the producer to use to certify to those yields for the 2013 through 2017 program year. The first report we have available is the RMA report of yield data and here's an example on the screen producers who have purchased federal crop insurance may use yield data reported to RMA by their crop insurance agent or approved insurance provider for determining the yield to certify on the CCC 867 which is the yield update form. Producers may obtain the RMA report of yield data from their local FSA office and use the report to certify to their yields in 2013 through 2017. More than likely most of the producers obtained this report probably last fall when they were in the spring when they were signing up for the 2019 program year. So a lot of producers may already have this on hand if they haven't had time to submit that 867 to the county office on the may already have this and they can use it to help certify their yields. The crop insurance yields on the report of yield data summary are those used to establish the APH database for each subsequent crop year. So while the FSA farm number is listed on the report in some instances the data is summarized by the insured unit end year. The yield update process must be completed as the farm is constituted constituted for the 2020 program year. The report may not include all of the farms or may include additional farms for a particular year in 2013 through 2017 that the producer has or had an interest in for the 2020 farming operation. Producers must use the most accurate yields to certify their crop yields and may not want to use this report if the data isn't accurate to what their 2020 operation is this year. How can the data on the report be used? The yield data for each crop insurance unit can be used but you'll have to match that up with the applicable farm number for each covered commodity in year. This may require splitting or combining unit acreage and production to match the 2020 FSA farm number or the acreage within that farm number. Producers may also use a blended producer average yield and that's listed on the report for the cover commodity in year and can be used for all acres of the cover commodity on all the FSA farms for that year. The blended producer average yield must be attributed to all farms that had those acres as listed in the 2020 FSA farm acreage history. It cannot be used with acreage of the cover commodity that was not under control of the producer in an applicable year but is now part of the 2020 year. So if you picked up additional acreage in 2020 or at any time between 2013 and 2017 that's now part of that 2020 farm yield FSA farm. You will need to use a substitute yield for that acreage that you picked up if that acreage is not included in the RMA data for that particular year. The second resource we have is the RPLC election and yield update analysis report. This report is available just to North Dakota County producers. It's something that we put together here in our state office for producers and what this report lists is the 2013 through 2007 planting history for cover commodity and it's provided for each FSA farm number that the producer has an interest in. So it lists each planting history for 13 through 17 and then we just want to make sure that you're aware that if there's any field boundary changes on any of the acres in that farm that the acres might not be 100% accurate but it will indicate whether that crop is planted or not and you'll need to research what the yield was for that particular acreage on the farm. It also provides the substitute yield so that's 75% of the county average that could be used in the calculation if you had a yield for that particular particular year that fell below the county average 75% of the county average. The last thing the report provides that'll help in the yield update process is the minimum yield. This is the minimum average 13 through 17 yield that's needed to increase the existing PLC yield. So this the existing 2019 PLC yield is listed on the report. It takes that yield divides it by the 90% factor and then divides it by that additional factor for each cover commodity to determine what the minimum average yield you would need to increase your PLC yield on the farm. So that's just a basic overview of the information on how to update a 2020 PLC yield update and what information is available to producers to assist in that process. More information on the program is available on the National Arc PLC website and the website is listed there with a screenprint of the information that's available. If you click on the resources button on that website you will find a yield update calculator and you can use that calculator to enter in your yields for each particular year. It has the substitute yields built into the calculator so it'll substitute the yield when necessary and then you can print the CCC 867 and have an owner of the farm sign it and provide that to the FSA office for the yield update. So that's all I had for the Arc PLC program Dave so I believe Ron if there's any questions I'll take those now and I believe Ron will be up next with some acreage reporting information. All right well good morning everyone. My name is Ron Duvall. I'm a compliance program director for North Dakota FSA office. I'm going to cover some of this acreage reporting slides and in my assistant or my program assistant here Mary Rademacher she's going to cover some special circumstances that we may have with acreage reporting. So we're going to just start with the purpose of the 578 so the reason that we the reason that we have a 578 is that we use that data to collect to determine compliance with farm programs. We use it to verify compliance with the highly rotable and wetland provisions of farm bill. We collect that data for FSA and other USDA agencies to use for program decisions so like when when we come up with other programs around the the nation this data is taken into account when when our congressional folks get together and determine disaster programs and such. We also use this to determine producer eligibility for loans and LDPs the acreage is used for that. We also determine crop and producer eligibility for our farm programs and these are just some examples you'll see ARC PLC, emergency livestock assistance program, livestock forest disaster programs, NAP that be our non-insured crop disaster assistance program, our market assistance loans and LDP, CRP, WIP and other programs and you guys have probably heard about the CARES Act and and and those are the kind of programs that we're going to use this crop this crop and reporting data for. So we have two acreage reporting dates in North Dakota. November 15th is our our date for apoculture fall and fall seeded small grains. July 15th is where we would handle grass seed, perennial forage and all other crops and there's just a little note here that we want to make sure everyone realizes that filing a timely and accurate acreage report for all crops and land uses can prevent loss of benefits because everything that we have in FSA feeds off of it feeds off of this acreage report for all those other programs that we're talking about. So we want to make sure that everyone files a timely and accurate acreage report and our folks out in the county offices they really want to do a good job for our producers and and we're going to get accurate reports we just need to make sure everyone gets in and meets these deadlines. So in our acreage reporting process there's really five steps that we we go through and the first step there the county office will create maps for the producers and then step two county offices distribute those maps to the producers, step three producers review maps for accuracy and then labels with the current year crop data and we're going to go through each of these steps in more a little bit more detail in just a minute here but step four producer schedules appointment to report acres with the county office and step five the producer meets with the county office and reports acres and that's when we would get the report signed. So step one step one is a map creation so the maps that you get when you come into the county office that is a compilation of a whole lot of data that we collect throughout the year and some of that data is changes and that that are made in our farm record system and that follows through with ownership changes such as land sales entity types and and any any kind of change that may come up with with our farm records operator changes other tenants are people coming and going as a land that you the land that you're farming with someone else ranch with someone else farming that last year or are you bringing someone on to plant potatoes or or some other crop that affects in our county office that affects how those maps and how accurate the maps are and land use changes when you know especially when you get around places where there's oil or gravel or urban sprawl as as the land use changes we have to change our records which in turn changes our maps and so what we really want to what I really wanted to get to on this slide was that was how important it is that we report changes to our operations to our county offices just to prevent any acreage reporting delays that may come in the future it's just a simple phone call and and the county office can help you with any any issues that you may have with these changes to your operation so step two after we after we put together maps then the next step is to distribute the maps and typically what we do for distributing the maps in North Dakota is that we would email the maps or we would have producers come by the office and pick them up but in 2020 because of the 2000 the COVID-19 pandemic all our acreage reports reporting maps that we have left in the offices at this time all of those are going to be mailed out we have emailed some and we've probably handed some out in special ways to people but what what we want everyone out there to know is that all our maps are going to be mailed out you should see you should receive your maps and if you have not received your maps you can go ahead and give your county office a call and then make sure that they get them to you now if you would like a digital copy of your map you will have to contact the county office and then they can they could email those out to you and then you'll have a copy for your records on your computer so step three is it's a really important step because when those maps are mailed out to you we want we want you to to make sure the producers to review those maps for accuracy because what we want to do is to make the process for acreage reporting easier for everyone so when you get your maps if you could just open them up and and check and make sure you have all your maps do you have all your maps or and and if you don't have them all you just think to yourself well did you pick up any new land or any of that did I forget to tell them that I picked up a section here or there and or I picked up some grazing land that I that I hadn't had before in previous years you also want to make sure that that your boundaries are correct if the boundaries aren't right then you may have some acreage reporting issues along the way and and and we just want to make sure that that all of our programs that are fed out of this acreage reporting system that the acreage is going to be correct and matched up and then again do do you have any other tenants this year are there is anyone coming on I know when I was a county director in Lisbon we had quite a few people that would come on for potatoes so you have someone that in and out one year for potatoes and out the next year or or maybe out in on some grazing and out on the next year just those kind of things that we maybe don't think about always how they would affect our maps but they really do they affect our acreage reporting and and the shares and and things on that acreage report and then anything else I just have some question marks there there could be a hundred other reasons why a person their maps may not be accurate but if you could just take a peek at that and just let us know we'll be happy to change that and then we then we get a good acreage report put together for this year okay and then so then step three is just when our producers when you after you've reviewed the maps and decide that everything is correct what we want you to do is to ensure that all your maps contain the following information so when you fill out your maps I'm sure most people have done this before but not everyone what we need is we need the field and subfield number some the maps come with a field number on them but when you have prevent plant you have wet you have other things and what we do is we would say there's field one a that is is crop so it would be field one a is soybeans and then field one B would be prevent plant soybeans just so you just so you understand that we also want to know the approximate boundaries of the crop if it's different from the CLU so there again that same example with soybeans if you have a soybean field that happens to have a wet spot in the middle of it that wet spot we want you to draw around that wet spot and then put an acreage in that so then we can we can load it into our software and say that that field of soybeans is soybeans and that the field that's the subfield that's prevent plant would be its own field of prevent plant we also want to know if there's any special patterns like a skip row pattern out there when when applicable we want to know the intended uses so if you've got soybeans for grain or if you have soybeans for seed or if you have hay or if you have for for forage or if you may have green chop or something like that out there we need to know that too so we can get that loaded in the system right we also need to know producer shares so if you're sharecropping if you're sharecropping on a 70 30 basis or if you're sharecropping 50 50 for whatever reason or if you're we just need to know what your share is on that crop and sometimes you may have a crop out there that's like maybe you have 100 share in let's say crp or grass and then you do a crop share with someone on your soybeans we need to know those shares because if those shares if those shares don't show up on the report then we load the report wrong and then we have a problem there too so we just want to make sure everyone has the best experience possible and and that's really I guess why we're having this whole call we also need to know the crop and the crop type so corn or soybeans and then we need to know the number of acres and the irrigation practice and the planting date step four this is uh this is a really important part of this process step four the producer schedule appointment so what we what we're going to expect this year is that because of this pandemic we want all all county offices are going to require producers to make an appointment to complete that acreage report for 2020 and and those I'm not going to tell you how to to to do an appointment or any how to make your appointment with your county office because every county office is going to they're going to be handling their appointments in in their own way so what what I want to stress to you is that you contact your county office and make an appointment as soon as possible after planting so that the county offices will be able to timely load those acreage reports and and and get them back to you and then step five would be just to meet with your county office and and bring those maps make sure you bring those maps to your appointment to prevent delays now this year is kind of it's an interesting interesting time we're in with this pandemic you know our offices at the present time they're all they're all closed to the public not closed we're we have people in the offices man in the offices but our services coming through the phone email like that so we're trying to to protect everyone with social distancing and we don't exactly know where the what direction this is going to go in we still have an active pandemic if you could call it that going on in our nation and so if you want to just contact your county offices they'll schedule an appointment for you and then we can make sure that everyone gets their acreage reports in now these special cases we're going to hand those over to mary if anybody has any questions i'll be glad to answer those after mary's done okay good morning everyone as ron already mentioned my name is mary ronemacher and i'm a compliance specialist in the north dakota state office and i will be going over these three different uh special cases for some people it might be uh familiar with it but then for others this might be a new thing for them this coming year so i will be covering how to report prevent plant field acreage as well as hemp so obtain to obtain prevent plant credit in our county offices we do consider prevented planting is the inability to plant the intended crop acreage with proper equipment by the final planting date for the crop type because of a natural disaster and it would need to be a natural disaster rather than a management decision in order to claim prevent planting credit in our county offices producers will need to report the prevented planted acreage to fsa by completing part b on a ccc 576 within 15 days after the final planting date of the crop so in addition to reporting your prevented plant on the fsa 578 you will also need to file form ccc 576 as well as providing that form county offices may require you to provide additional information to substantiate your claim so that could be information that differentiates a natural disaster versus a management decision to not plant the acreage once you do file a ccc 576 please remember that that form cannot be reported before the final planting date and then once you do provide that form it cannot be withdrawn or revised after submission so as your county office is assisting you in completing that form just make sure that you are checking it over for accuracy so for reporting failed acreage that does follow a somewhat similar process but for failed acreage we consider that to be acreage that was timely planted with the intent to harvest but because of disaster related conditions that crop failed before it could be brought to harvest to claim failed acreage credit we would also need to have you report that acreage on an fsa 578 to fsa as well as complete a ccc 576 and it's important to do both of those items before the disposition of the crop fsa is required to go out and verify that the crop did fail in order to have it count as failed acreage as with the prevent plant remember that once the 576 is submitted a failed acreage claim cannot be withdrawn or revised so again double check it for accuracy before submitting it now moving into hemp something new for this year with the agriculture improvement act of 2018 that did authorize producers to grow hemp under a license that can be issued by a state tribe or the USDA so USDA's agricultural marketing service or MS is the agency responsible for regulating the hemp production in the United States additional background on hemp hemp is defined as the plant species cannabis sativa l and any part of that plant which would include the seeds and all derivatives extracts cannabinoids isomers acids salts and salt isomers whether growing or not with a delta nine tetrahydro cannabinoid concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis so that delta nine tetrahydro cannabinoid or thc which is much easier to say is the primary intoxicating component of cannabis so ams as well as federal and state will be regulating the thc level of hemp cannabis with a thc level exceeding 0.3 percent is considered marijuana which remains classified as a schedule one controlled substance regulated by the drug enforcement administration so as producers who might be growing hemp likely know or have been told they need to make sure that they are following guidelines and regulations according to their license to ensure the thc level does not reach 0.3 percent so when it comes to fsa hemp producers must be licensed growers and they will need to file acreage reports with fsa to comply with state and thrill law the information that is gathered from our acreage reports will actually be shared with ams to help with them in tracking and compliance of hemp growing additionally producers are required to submit their license number at the time that they do certify their acreage with fsa this is ron ronda voligan the hemp reporting in this overview the 2020 acreage reporting deadline for hemp is august 17 2020 what i want everyone to remember is that the 2020 acres reporting deadline of august 17 that's the deadline to report the acres but according to the law that those hemp acres they must be reported as soon as possible after you plant it because that's part of the regulating process are the the state and national and tribal licensing folks they want to know when those acres are planted and that'll include even when it's planted in the greenhouse and all but you'll you'll know that from when you apply you'll get all the regulations on that but just so you know this august 17 deadline to report acres that's like a final plant date almost it's not that's not we report our hemp by then you have to report your hemp as soon as possible after you plant it okay so then the acreage report moving on there the that report will capture the data on the planted fail and prevent plant acres for hemp as well to file an acreage report producers should obtain a hemp production license or authorization number issued by usda state or tribe and then they must file an acreage report with fsa identifying each field or subfield in which the hemp is planted including the license or authorization number the field or subfield could be referred to as a lot and or includes greenhouses now this this hemp reporting is relatively new for our county offices and and we're getting new data all the time on how we're going to handle this hemp reporting but just so you guys know like when you come into the county office you're going to have to know the acres or or even if it's we can and we can we can report acres down to one one thousandth of an acre so if you've got a greenhouse that's only point two acres or point one acres full of this hemp then we're you still have to report it to our county offices and then you'll want to do like i said before you'll want to provide the acreage report immediately after planting just to so that you make sure that you remain in compliance with federal and state law so as part of the hemp reporting process you want to identify the intended use of hemp being reported and i know i didn't go through all the intended uses for the other crops but because this is so new and and and exciting for everyone i just wanted to make sure that we covered these intended uses so hemp can be reported as fiber which you know that fiber would be used for cloth uh pressed plastics ropes animal bedding paper biofuels packing packaging concrete additives and spill cleanup you'll also see the cbd or cannabidiol that cbd we see it all over in every gas station every every every uh pharmacy around the country and that cbd is grown for extraction of plant resin which includes cbd and other phytocannum and benenoids to be extracted from the flower that's subject to fda regulations resins may be used in such items as oils lotions cleansers bath or other pharmaceutical or topical products you also will be able to report as grain that would be used for hemp hearts crushed seed oil not cbd and protein supplements human and or animal for animal consumption and then we also you'll see for seed that would be used for propagation stock hybrids or non-human consumption there um and then information on program eligibility you for for fsa you can find that on our website at farmers.gov slash hemp and and and even more than just hemp if you if you go to this farmers.gov website you can find anything about fsa that you want there it's a really good resource for acreage reporting it's a good resource for loans loan rates you name it you're gonna find it there if you uh if you look for it and that is all i have we're gonna move it on to uh lindsay all right hello everyone um my name is lindsay abintrop and i handle public affairs and communications for north Dakota fsa um we all know that communication is key uh and we want to keep you updated and educated um always but especially now uh we've got so many different programs and deadlines going on um so i'm just gonna quickly go over um the ways that you can make sure that you know about all of those uh forthcoming deadlines and program information and opportunities like this one where we are able to partner partner with nbsu to host um these educational outreach uh webinars in which we're so thankful for that partnership all right um producers land donors and really anyone interested in keeping up to date with important fsa programs deadlines and information are strongly encouraged to sign up for our gov delivery newsletters and also often to receive your county fsa text message alerts uh these two communication systems allow um our information and our deadline reminders uh to be sent right to your email um address um and also your phone um so as this flyer mentions um to subscribe to gov delivery newsletters um on the very last paragraph there uh you can visit www.fsa.usda.gov um back slash subscribe um and there you can uh choose to select to receive our state office newsletter as well as any county newsletter in the state of north dakota that you would like to receive information from our state newsletter goes out every single month and it encompasses all the different program areas with fsa and information and then our county newsletters are a little bit more specific to the county that you live in and will be real personalized information for you in that county and actions and deadlines and information that you'll want to act on and know about um now our fsa text messaging is uh fairly new um but producers must opt in to receive them so you'll have to sign up for them by yourself and um it's pretty easy you just text um your state as well as your county as it explains on here to fsa now or 372-669 um and uh we have included the example steel county on here so nd steel um it doesn't matter if you're using uppercase or lowercase or a mix as long as you um have your state at the beginning as well as your county um at the end and um every state um in our nation um has gov delivery so if you are listening in from minnesota or south dakota montana you have that option also to receive information from your state and county that you reside in um just a few things to mention about our um text messaging um you will if you do it correctly you're going to receive a system generated reply um that will tell you that you've successfully enrolled um standard text messaging rates may apply um so if that is of concern to you please contact your wireless carrier for details associated with your data plan um participants may unsubscribe at any time and we're only going to text you important um flash updates on critical information that you're going to want to know um it's going to be during business hours we're not going to be bugging you at 10 o'clock at night and um you might hear from us a few different times in one month or you might not hear for us for a few months we're just going to send you out that quick information that you will want to ask on so if you ever have any questions or have any trouble signing up for our newsletters um or our text messaging certainly reach out to your county office and they will be glad to help you get set up with um our communication services here okay the next uh slide i'm just going to point out um all of the different service centers in north dakota um you'll notice we have a service center in every county except for billions in slope um the big black dots indicate where we also have a farm loan presence in that office also um so just a little update on on where we're located and where you can and where you can find us okay the next few slides um i'll move through fairly fast but um here we have listed the phone number for you um for every single county as well as the email address that won't just go to the cd or the flm or the pt but rather everyone in that office will be able to access that email therefore if somebody is on sick leave or or gone and you have important information that you're sending via email somebody should be receiving that email as long as you use this county group email address and um as we've mentioned our speakers have mentioned today this is a very important way that you can communicate with us um until these social distancing provisions are over um so that we can find additional ways to um to help you out remotely so i've just listed every single county office here along with the email address and the phone number go through here and again um this will be recorded and you'll be able to access this information um in case you miss it and i scroll too fast um for address information or for additional information um for your local service center here's our service center locator on farmers.gov and then just a couple of communication resources um farmers.gov is a fantastic website and they are improving and enhancing that website all the time um lots of helpful information on there um with not just FSA information but our sister and partner agencies through USDA such as NRCS and RMA you can and access information on that website as well and then we have a specific coronavirus and USDA service center's website also so another website that you might want to be mindful of and and check out just done uh certain updates um and of course we will be um rolling out new programs um related to coronavirus um and the mechanics will be will be announced soon so you will definitely want to um stay up to date on everything that we've got going on so that once those that information is able to be shareable we'll be able to to get that out to you and you'll be able to access it on these sites as well. Um and then just our presenters today we had Laura Heinrich our PLC um here's her contact information um as well as Ron Duvall um and Mary Rademacher who uh went through acreage reporting um and some hemp information also um our state director executive director is Brad Tickison his information is included included on here and um myself as well if you were to ever have any questions certainly reach out to any of us and um that's all I have for you today we thank you for your time and I will roll it back today for any questions for any of the presenters that may have come up in the chat box. Great thanks Lindsay I think we do have a couple of questions Marad if you want to field those. Sorry about that um so we have one question for Laura is why would Minnesota be using 75% as a factor to update PLC when North Dakota is using 90% percent? Um that Minnesota would be using the same uh calculation factor the same PLC yield calculation um as North Dakota I think when you're talking 75% that 75% would be used as a substitute yield if there is a low yield um in a particular year but that calculation of taking the the simple average of 2013 through 2017 times 90% times that additional factor that's applicable to every farm in the nation regardless of the location. The 75% comes in just when there's a low yield in a particular year um that it could be replaced with 75% of the county average. Yeah and just a quick reminder that a recording of this webinar and the two previous webinars will be on the NDSU Extension Farm Management website near WRLs on the screen. This will give you just a few more seconds to complete the poll I I want to again thank uh FSA uh all of the speakers today in a previous meetings uh and Executive Director Brad Tegeson for for working with NDSU Extension again we've long had a positive working relationship with one another and this is just one more way that we can work together um and once again if you can take some time to complete that poll uh and if you have any more questions feel free to direct them to Miranda or me or the experts as Lindsey shared some of their contact information today. Thanks everybody.