Lafayette/Iowa County USDA Service Center Updates

View as a webpage / Share Farm Service Agency  |  Natural Resources Conservation Service  |  Risk Management Agency Lafayette/Iowa County USDA Service Center Updates - September 30, 2025   In This Issue: Regular Maintenance Requirements for all CRP Contracts Efforts for 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey of Cultivated Cropland Operations Now Underway Disaster Set-Aside and Distressed Borrower Set-Aside Programs USDA to Provide $1 Billion to Flood and Wildfire-Impacted Livestock Producers Regular Maintenance Requirements for all CRP Contracts The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to conserve farmland for future generations while providing habitat for wildlife, reducing soil erosion, and improving water quality. Regular maintenance on CRP acres is needed to ensure the acreage continues to provide conservation benefits and remains in compliance with the CRP contract.  Regular Maintenance  Producers with CRP contracts are required to control all weeds, insects, pests, and other undesirable species to the extent necessary to ensure that the approved conservation cover is adequately protected and to ensure there is no adverse impact on surrounding land. Mowing is one of the allowable practices for weed control, but mowing for aesthetic purposes is never permitted. The Conservation Plan states the required weed control methods for each site.   Once a stand has been certified as fully established, participants are required to maintain plant diversity and stand density according to the Conservation Plan and offer (CRP-2) for the life of the contract. Stands that do not meet practice specific plant diversity or density requirements may be considered non-compliant. Refer to your conservation plan or contact FSA if you have any questions or concerns about the vegetative cover requirements.  Maintenance activities cannot occur during the primary nesting season for birds without written prior approval from the local county office. The primary nesting season in Wisconsin is May 15th through August 1st.  Mid-Contract Management  Regular maintenance for weed and pest control is separate from the Mid-Contract Management (MCM) requirement. MCM ensures plant diversity and wildlife benefits while ensuring protection of the soil and water resources. Such activities are site-specific and are for the purpose of enhancing the approved cover.   MCM must be completed between years four and six of a 10-year contract and between years seven and nine of a 15-year contract. The Conservation Plan will state what year MCM must take place.  Noncompliance with Maintenance Requirements  Failure to adequately maintain the stand may result in noncompliance with the terms and conditions of the CRP contract. Noncompliance can result in adverse actions up to and including termination of the CRP contract. Contracts that are out of compliance are ineligible to re-enroll, unless the stand is brought back into compliance prior to the enrollment deadline.   For general information about CRP, visit the Conservation Reserve Program webpage. For information about specific contracts, reach out to the local FSA office.  Top of page Efforts for 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey of Cultivated Cropland Operations Now Underway If you're a farmer or other operator, you may be asked to participate in a survey to gather in-depth information about the use of conservation practices on cultivated cropland. The 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) Survey is a joint effort between USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS will visit approximately 23,000 operators across the contiguous U.S. in August and September 2025 to determine survey eligibility. A more in-depth follow-up survey will be conducted starting in November 2025. This is the second of three years of surveys conducted by NASS. Once surveying is complete, NRCS will combine the data with information from the National Resources Inventory, NRCS field staff, and multiple data sources to estimate environmental and management outcomes of conservation on cultivated cropland across U.S. farms. NRCS will publish the findings as a CEAP Cropland Assessment report. CEAP Cropland Assessments quantify the effects of voluntary conservation efforts across the nation's cropland at both regional and national scales. Learn more about the survey.Top of page Disaster Set-Aside and Distressed Borrower Set-Aside Programs The Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers two types of set-aside programs to assist FSA direct loan borrowers. The set-aside programs are intended to help distressed borrowers as well as borrowers impacted by natural disasters. Disaster Set-Aside Program The Disaster Set-Aside Program (DSA) assists existing FSA direct loan borrowers who have been impacted by natural disasters. The DSA program provides short-term financial relief by allowing eligible borrowers to delay FSA direct loan payments that are due this year or next year (but not both). You may delay up to one full annual payment per loan and the delayed payment will be moved to the end of the loan term. You will not be required to pay this set-aside installment until the loan's final due date.  The principal portion of the amount set-aside will continue to accrue interest at your loan's existing interest rate. To be eligible, borrowers must have operated a farm in a county declared a disaster area or a contiguous county at the time of the disaster. In addition, the borrower's inability to make their upcoming payment must be due to the disaster.   To apply for DSA, borrowers must provide their local USDA Service Center with a letter requesting DSA, which must be signed by all parties liable for the debt. The letter must be provided to your local Service Center within eight months of the disaster declaration date. The application process also includes providing your actual production, income, and expense records for the last three years. FSA may also request additional information as needed to make an eligibility decision. Distressed Borrower Set-Aside Program FSA Direct Farm Loan Program borrowers whose loans were closed before Sept. 25, 2024, may be eligible for assistance under the Distressed Borrower Set-Aside Program (DBSA). Similar to DSA, DBSA also provides short-term financial relief by allowing eligible borrowers to delay FSA direct loan payments that are due this year or next year (but not both).  You may delay up to one full annual payment per loan and the delayed payment will be moved to the end of the loan term. You will not be required to pay this set-aside installment until the loan's final due date.   An increased benefit with DBSA is that the principal portion of the set-aside will accrue interest at a reduced rate of 0.125% rather than your loan's existing interest rate.  To be eligible for DBSA, the borrower must demonstrate financial distress, but their inability to make the upcoming payment does not need to be due to a disaster.  The DBSA application process is similar to DSA as borrowers must provide their local USDA Service Center with a letter requesting DBSA, which must be signed by all parties liable for the debt. The application process also includes providing your actual production, income, and expense records for the last three years. FSA may also request additional information as needed to make an eligibility decision. Important Factors for Both DSA and DBSA: FSA direct loan borrowers are not able to obtain more than one set-aside per loan. Borrowers also cannot obtain both a DSA and DBSA simultaneously on the same loan. In addition, FSA direct loans with less than two years remaining are not eligible for a DSA or DBSA. Other eligibility requirements apply; we encourage you to contact your local Service Center for more information. Both DSA and DBSA are intended to provide short-term relief for situations where borrowers anticipate the ability to resume paying their full annual installment(s) in the following year. If you require a more long-term form of financial relief, FSA has other potential options available through primary loan servicing (PLS).  For more information on DSA, DBSA, or PLS, please contact your the Grant County Service Center at (608) 723-7697. You may also visit fsa.usda.gov.  Additional information, eligibility criteria and program limitations may be found within the Disaster Set-Aside and Distressed Borrower Set-Aside Program fact sheets. USDA to Provide $1 Billion to Flood and Wildfire-Impacted Livestock Producers Top of page 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.         USDA Service Center Lafayette County FSA                          Iowa County FSA 1900 Ervin Johnson Drive                      1124 Professional Drive     Darlington, WI 53530                              Dodgeville, WI 53533 Phone: 608-776-4028                             Phone: 608-935-2791                Fax: 855-740-5979                                 Fax: 855-740-5980                           Lafayette/Iowa Farm Service Agency County Executive Director Monica L Yates-Olsen monica.yates-olsen@usda.gov 608-776-4028 ext. 2 Lafayette 608-935-2791 ext. 2 Iowa Lafayette County Office email address: fsa.darlington@usda.gov Iowa County Office email address: fsa.dodgeville@usda.gov Lafayette NRCS District Conservationist Jason Thomas 608-776-4028 ext. 3 jason.thomas@usda.gov RMA Regional Office St. Paul Office 653-290-3304 rsomn@rma.usda.gov Lafayette/Iowa County Farm Loan Manager Tammy Reynolds 608-723-7697 tammy.reynolds@usda.gov Iowa NRCS District Conservationist Matthew Miller 608-935-2791 ext. 3 matthew.miller2@usda.gov Lafayette County Program Analysts: Kimberly Kammes-Main Dawn Marr Michalina Russell Madyson Steckmann Iowa County Program Analysts: Rebecca Hofer Beth Miles Catherine Stepien Jagger Mess Lizzie Udelhoven Mary Gilbertson

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