Animal

Well-known Member
Spent three hours there today reporting my crops, I feel like I have given birth...Do things really have to be so complicated?
 
Us Northerners forget there is a 2nd crop possibility in warmer climates. Too cold for even winter wheat around here, dad did it a few years, but didn't hold up year in and year out.

They closed my FSA office, my county is all rural, biggest town in it is 12,000 or so, we don't even have a public airport, just all farming. So ours was one of 4 offices closed. So I'd have no place to report to, they closed end of July, sent the paperwork to a far away office, and I had to ask to get transfered to a closer office. Said they'd contact me when they got it all sorted out.

Looks like they want the offices in big cities run by people that know nothing about agriculture.

--->Paul
 
If you sign up on Government programs you are subjecting yourself to bureacrats regulations and whims, how about a little sympathy for the taxpayers subsidizing these programs?
 
Then get our govt to get out of the 'free market' of farm commodity prices, and we all can be happier. :)

When they manipulate the market prices, they end up having to support the crashed prices they create for decades.

Would be like the govt does something to lower hourly wages by 1/3. Then they have to spend more on food stamps to make up for it.... Even if you have a good hourly wage job, you'd be kinda upset about it & looking for the govt to make it right again...

Same deal with the govt ag programs.

--->Paul
 
I don"t look for the Government to make anything right, that is the ultimate contradiction. My Grandfather, Dad, Uncles, Brothers, Cousins, Myself and now my Sons all currently or formerly farmed and not one of us ever signed up on any program whatsoever, consequently, no one can tell me what to grow or not to grow on my land just as they could not tell my Dad or GrandFather.
 
I understand where you are coming from.

Where I live, they count my cattle, my 'huge' 25-33 head grazing heard needs to be permitted every 4 years.

I can't plant certain areas that were deemed wetlands in the 1980's. I need permits to drain any part of the farm. I need paperwork and monthly inspections if I store more than 1320 gallons of petro. I need permits to store granular fertilizer or a certain amount of liquid fertilizers.

This is outside of the farm program, applies to you as well, so don't think if you stay out of the program, you are outside of the govt.

They are sending up drones in the Dakotas to enforce these regulations. Other states are waiting to join in with the drones, big brother is watching.

I'm with you, I agree, but - they make the rules, you are not so insulated from them as you think.

It only gets worse.

--->Paul
 
I certainly don't claim to be above the law and I understand no one can divorce the government completely but, I refuse to help them have more control over me than they already have.
 
(quoted from post at 11:46:47 09/18/12) I certainly don't claim to be above the law and I understand no one can divorce the government completely but, I refuse to help them have more control over me than they already have.

I feel the same way,... I've never "darkened the doorway" of a FSA office in my life.
 

You boys must not farm much rented ground or do much conservation work then. Kudos to you. Also if you look at the USDA budget you'll see that most of your tax dollars go for school lunches and food stamps.
 
I don't get your point, I rent ground and do conservation work, build terraces, irrigation management etc. I pay for these improvements and expenses out of pocket, the improvements either pay for themselves and make me money or not, why would I need a government agency involved?
 
I rent some ground on shares, landholders require that the farms are in the DCP program. Another example, there was an old walnut row that ran 1/4 mile along the north side of a 40 that some neighbors own. They hired a man to remove the trees, he go the job done and along comes the NRCS saying that he must install a water way to prevent erosion that was controlled by the trees he removed. Now this field is level as such is considered "here", no govt. funds were used on the project but the agency still has domain. fd
 
I guess I see both sides of the coin here. Some do, and some don't. I stay out of the FSA programs because they are mostly for the BFO and grain farmers. But our NRCS office is in the same office, and I do get into their programs. To date, they have built a feeding pad, manure pit, put in 3 spring developments, paid for some perimeter fence and cross fencing, heavy use areas, and, when the springs slowed flowing about ten years ago, drilled a well and put in mechanical waterers. We have done most of the work, and it has paid us to do it. All have been in exchange for a 5 to 10 year 'contract' and most are now expired, but we still use the facilities every day. The only thing we have had to do was maintain them and use them. And then, they came around a few years ago and rewarded us for having these practices and others, such as rotational grazing and no-till planting, in use. This netted us an additional $7K per year! The installation costs were over $100K, which would have had to come out of our pocket if we hadn't gone to them. Yes, It's taxpayer money. But I have come to the conclusion that if I didn't take it, someone else would have. The folks in DC just love to give it to anyone they can find to give it to. They spent $4 million years ago for a study that concluded that manure was slippery when wet. And who knows what else they have blown on any number of dumb things. But conservation practices that are costly may not have been on this farm if we had to finance it ourselves and place them in practice. The bay could have our mud and the town down the road could drink our manure runoff. But we have little to none of either, partly in thanks to NRCS. And it has been painless, and paid us handsomely to do it. Now that I think of it, I must be one of that 47%.....
 
I know the feeling,I rented a farm next to me that the landlord is in every program he can get and it is a real pain.I am not in any programs so this is all new to me.After this poor year I am considering crop insurance,do I have to be in the gov. programs for that? Our FSA office is run by a bunch of people with no experience using a book written by someone with no experience.They either can not make a decision or will not make one.
 
Maybe I'm stupid, but I haven't figured out crop insurance yet. I think there is something about you have to be in a programs to get it, but I'm not sure. I explored hay insurance after last year, and had to pick two two month increments based on moisture to insure. What a crap shoot!

By the way, I just contacted NRCS today about our cover crop acreage that has been planted for the early bonus. That's worth another $10 an acre.
 

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