 News from Fentress Morgan Scott County FSA -September 30, 2025 In This Issue:  U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced eligible livestock producers will receive disaster recovery assistance through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire (ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW) to help offset increased supplemental feed costs due to a qualifying flood or qualifying wildfire in calendar years 2023 and 2024. The program is expected to provide approximately $1 billion in recovery benefits. Sign-up begins on Monday, September 15. Livestock producers have until October 31, 2025, to apply for assistance. Qualifying Disaster Events To streamline program delivery, FSA has determined eligible counties with qualifying floods and qualifying wildfires in 2023 and 2024. For losses in these counties, livestock producers are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfires. A list of approved counties is available at fsa.usda.gov/elrp. For losses in counties not listed as eligible, livestock producers can apply for ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or qualifying wildfire occurred in the county where the livestock were physically located or would have been physically located if not for the disaster event. FSA county committees will determine if the disaster event meets program requirements. Acceptable documentation includes: - Photographs documenting impact to livestock, land, or property
- Insurance documentation
- Emergency declaration reports
- News articles
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm event database records
- Other FSA disaster program participation records
- Other documentation determined acceptable by the FSA county committee
Livestock and Producer Eligibility For ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW, FSA is using covered livestock criteria similar to the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) which includes weaned beef cattle, dairy cattle, beefalo, buffalo, bison, alpacas, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, ostriches, reindeer, and sheep. Wildfire assistance is available on non-federally managed land to participants who did not receive assistance through LFP or the ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire program delivered to producers in July of this year. When producers submit their application, they must provide documentation to support eligible livestock inventories as of the beginning date of the qualifying disaster event. Livestock producers can receive assistance for one or both years, 2023 and 2024, and for multiple qualifying disaster events, if applicable. However, producers cannot exceed three months of assistance per producer, physical location county, and program year. Payment Calculation Eligible producers can receive up to 60% of one month of calculated feed costs for a qualifying wildfire or three months for a qualifying flood using the same monthly feed cost calculation that is used for LFP. ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire and ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW have a combined payment limit of $125,000 for each program year. Producers who already received the maximum payment amount from ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire will not be eligible to receive an additional payment under ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW. Eligible producers may submit form FSA-510, Request for an Exception to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for Certain Programs, to be considered for an increased payment limit of $250,000. Supplemental Disaster Assistance Timeline USDA is fully committed to expediting remaining disaster assistance provided by the American Relief Act, 2025. On May 7, we launched our 2023/2024 Supplemental Disaster Assistance public landing page where the status of USDA disaster assistance and block grant rollout timeline can be tracked. The page is updated regularly and accessible through fsa.usda.gov. Contact your local FSA county office for more information. | Top of page  The Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Risk Management Agency (RMA) worked together to develop consistent, simple and a flexible policy for cover crop practices. Cover crops, such as grasses, legumes and forbs, can be planted: with no subsequent crop planted, before a subsequent crop, after prevented planting acreage, after a planted crop, or into a standing crop. Termination: The cover crop termination guidelines provide the timeline for terminating cover crops, are based on zones and apply to non-irrigated cropland. To view the zones and additional guidelines visit nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/landuse/crops/ and click "Cover Crop Termination Guidelines." The cover crop may be terminated by natural causes, such as frost, or intentionally terminated through chemical application, crimping, rolling, tillage or cutting. A cover crop managed and terminated according to NRCS Cover Crop Termination Guidelines is not considered a crop for crop insurance purposes. Reporting: The intended use of cover only will be used to report cover crops. This includes crops that were terminated by tillage and reported with an intended use code of green manure. An FSA policy change will allow cover crops to be hayed and grazed. Program eligibility for the cover crop that is being hayed or grazed will be determined by each specific program. If the crop reported as cover only is harvested for any use other than forage or grazing and is not terminated properly, then that crop will no longer be considered a cover crop. Crops reported with an intended use of cover only will not count toward the total cropland on the farm. In these situations, a subsequent crop will be reported to account for all cropland on the farm. |  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing the launch of the Debt Consolidation Tool, an innovative online tool available through farmers.gov that allows agricultural producers to enter their farm operating debt and evaluate the potential savings that might be provided by obtaining a debt consolidation loan with USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) or a local lender. A debt consolidation loan is a new loan used to pay off other existing operating loans or lines of credit that might have unreasonable rates and terms. By combining multiple eligible debts into a single, larger loan, borrowers may obtain more favorable payment terms such as a lower interest rate or lower payments. Consolidating debt may also provide farmers and ranchers additional cash flow flexibilities. The Debt Consolidation Tool is a significant addition to FSA's suite of improvements designed to modernize its Farm Loan Programs. The tool enhances customer service and increases opportunities for farmers and ranchers to achieve financial viability by helping them identify potential savings that could be reinvested in their farming and ranching operation, retirement accounts, or college savings accounts. Producers can access the Debt Consolidation Tool by visiting farmers.gov/debt-consolidation-tool. The tool is built to run on modern browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or the Safari browser. Producers do not need to create a farmers.gov account or access the authenticated customer portal to use the tool. USDA encourages producers to reach out to their local FSA farm loan staff to ensure they fully understand the wide range of loan and servicing options available to assist with starting, expanding, or maintaining their agricultural operation. To conduct business with FSA, please contact your local USDA Service Center.  | | The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA) made significant enhancements to federal crop insurance programs by expanding benefits for beginning farmers and ranchers, increasing coverage options, and making crop insurance more affordable and accessible across multiple insurance programs. Putting American Farmers First with Enhanced Support for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Beginning farmers and ranchers will receive substantially increased premium support during their first decade of farming operations, making crop insurance more affordable for the next generation of American agricultural producers. The enhanced benefits mean beginning farmers and ranchers will now receive: - 15 percentage points additional subsidy for the first two crop years
- 13 percentage points for the third crop year
- 11 percentage points for the fourth crop year
- 10 percentage points for years five through ten
These benefits build upon existing support that waives administrative fees and provides base premium subsidies. A beginning farmer or rancher is now defined as an individual who has not actively operated and managed a farm or ranch for more than 10 crop years. Making Crop Insurance More Accessible with Expanded Coverage Options Improvements to area-based crop insurance programs include: - Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) maximum coverage level increase from 85% to 90%, providing producers with enhanced protection for diversified operations.
- Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) premium support increase from 65% to 80%, making this valuable gap coverage more affordable. Additionally, producers can now purchase SCO regardless of their Area Risk Coverage (ARC) elections with the Farm Service Agency, dramatically increasing accessibility.
- Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) and similar programs including Margin Coverage Option (MCO), Hurricane Insurance Protection Wind Index (HIP-WI), and Fire Insurance Protection Smoke Index (FIP-SI) will also receive the increased 80% in premium support, making comprehensive coverage more affordable than ever.
- SCO coverage will also expand to a coverage level of 90% (from 86%). Producers will have access to this option in 2026 via the ECO product, which has identical coverage at the same cost and premium support levels. USDA will then change the SCO policy for the 2027 crop year.
These changes will be effective for all crops with sales closing dates on or after July 1, 2025. RMA will provide additional guidance on other provisions within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as implementation details are finalized. Producers should contact their local crop insurance agent or visit the RMA website for more information about how these changes may affect their coverage options. | Top of page  | | A key part of NRCS's 90-year history was the establishment of the conservation planning process by Hugh Hammond Bennett. Bennett was the agency's first chief and is considered the "father of soil conservation." He believed in considering each farm's unique conditions when developing a conservation plan. A conservation plan is a document outlining the strategies and actions that should be taken to protect and manage natural resources on a specific area of land. It serves as a blueprint for achieving conservation goals. To develop a conservation plan, a conservation planner and the customer (farmer, rancher or landowner) collaborate during the conservation planning process. Bennett believed that agency employees must walk the land with the customer and see their natural resource challenges and opportunities firsthand. Bennett also understood that natural resource concerns could not be treated in isolation; soil, water, air, plants, animals, and humans are all part of an integrated system that is inter-dependent. Learn more about how conservation planning has evolved over the years. | Top of page Fentress/Morgan/Scott USDA Service Center 452 E Mark Twain Ave. Ste A
Jamestown, TN 38556 Phone:931-879-7917
Fax: 855-494-6725 | | | | Fentress/Scott District Conservation Jesse Tussing 931-879-8212 jesse.a.tussing@usda.gov Farm Service Agency Loan Officer Sean Will 931-484-6520 Ex 105 sean.will@usda.gov | Morgan District Conservationist Cody Franklin 931-484-5442 Ex 3 cody.franklin@usda.gov FSA Acting Executive Director Angela Young 931-879-7917 Ex 2 angela.young@usda.gov | | Next scheduled County Committee Meeting August 19, 2025 @ 8:30 a.m. CST at the Fentress County Service Center. If you would need to request an accommodation, please contact Angie Young at 931-879-7917 x 2 or angela.young@usda.gov no later than 3 business days prior to the scheduled meeting to request accommodations (e.g., an interpreter, translator, seating arrangements, etc.) or materials in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape – captioning, etc.). | |
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