After toiling through a damp planting season and a mid-July drought, Virginia corn and soybean growers are bracing for diminished harvests following an August deluge.

“The season’s been a double punch to farmers because you had all of that extremely wet weather at the beginning just to go into a drought,” said Mike Parrish, a Virginia Cooperative Extension agent in Dinwiddie County.

“Growers have crops that didn’t finish maturing and didn’t fully reach their potential, and now that we’re heading into more rain, it’s going to be another challenge. They’ll just hope they can have a decent harvest and get what little crop is there.”

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U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) reminds farmers and ranchers that the deadline to apply for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) is Sept. 11, 2020. This program provides direct relief to producers who faced price declines and additional marketing costs due to COVID-19.

“FSA offers several options for farmers and ranchers to apply for CFAP, including a call center where employees can answer your questions and help you get started on your application,” said Richard Fordyce, Farm Service Agency administrator. “With only two weeks before the deadline, now is the time to check out the resources on our website and contact the call center or your local office for your last-minute questions.” 

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USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) reminds farm owners that they have a one-time opportunity to update Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program yields for covered commodities on the farm. The deadline is September 30, 2020, to update yields, which are used to calculate the PLC payments for 2020 through 2023. Additionally, producers who elected Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) should also consider updating their yields. 

“The last time farmers could update yields for these important safety-net programs was in 2014,” said FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce. “It is the farm owner’s choice whether to update or keep existing yields. So, if you rent, you’ll need to communicate with your landlord who will be the one to sign off on the yield updates.” 

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Check out this week’s Merchandiser Minute!

The Trump Administration has announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $9 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Virginia.

“Access to a high-speed internet connection is a cornerstone of prosperity, and unfortunately many of America’s rural communities lack access to this critical infrastructure,” said USDA Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Bette Brand. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Perdue, USDA is committed to leveraging all available resources and being a strong partner to rural communities in deploying high-speed broadband e-Connectivity to the people, businesses and community facilities that don’t have access yet. Connecting America’s rural communities to this essential infrastructure is one of USDA’s top priorities, because we know that when rural America thrives, all of America thrives.”

In rural Virginia, Scott County Telephone Cooperative will use a $9 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network to connect 7,496 people, 416 farms, 97 businesses, a fire station, a town hall and two educational facilities to high-speed broadband internet in Scott County.

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We are so #farmbureauproud that both VFBF President Wayne Pryor and VFBF District 10 Board Member Robert Mills, Jr. are featured in Virginia Business‘s 2020 Power List of the state’s top business leaders. Read more here: https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/agriculture/…

Farmers remain powerless in the Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation Final Rule made public today by the USDA. The American Farm Bureau Federation advocated for clear rules and safeguards to ensure fair treatment of farmers in conservation compliance, but the final rule does not remedy unfair enforcement by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

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Check out this week’s Merchandiser Minute!

https://youtu.be/0vFudnho6Lw

An additional $1 billion in funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program was announced by the White House on Monday.

The program originally authorized $3 billion for the boxes and was expected to spend a total of $2.67 billion between mid-May and the end of August.

According to the USDA, 35.6 million food boxes were distributed between May 15 and June 30 in the program’s first round, and 35.1 million food boxes were distributed from July 1 to Aug. 24 in the second round, which ends Aug. 31. The third round of the program begins Sept. 1 and ends Oct. 31.

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Rising input costs and diminishing financial returns are challenging more farmers than ever before, but even as adverse conditions persist, American farmland has retained a record-high value.

On Aug. 6 the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its annual land values report, which showed U.S. cropland is valued at an average of $4,100 per acre in 2020. The figure matches record-high values assessed in 2019 and 2015.

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