WASHINGTON, June 21, 2023 – Agricultural producers who have not yet completed their crop acreage reports after planting should make an appointment with their local U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) office before the applicable deadline, which for many places and crops is July 17. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) also reminds producers with login access to farmers.gov of several features that can help expedite acreage reporting, such as the ability to view, print and label maps.

“Regardless of the size of your operation or its location – rural or urban – filing an accurate and timely crop acreage report is an important step in receiving USDA program benefits, including safety net, conservation, and disaster assistance support,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “Once you’re finished planting, please call your FSA county office to make an appointment to report your acres. While you’re there, you can also check with your local FSA staff to see if there are any other program applications that can be completed during the same office visit. Additionally, if you have a farmers.gov profile or if you’d like to create one, log in to prepare your maps to save time.”

An acreage report documents the crops grown and their intended uses. Filing an accurate and timely acreage report for all crops and land uses, including failed acreage and prevented planted acreage, is necessary to participate in many USDA programs. July 17 is a major deadline for most crops, but acreage reporting deadlines vary by county and by crop.

Producers should also report crop acreage they intended to plant but were unable to plant because of a natural disaster. Prevented planting acreage must be reported on form CCC-576, Notice of Loss, no later than 15 calendar days after the final planting date. Final planting dates are established by FSA and USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) and vary by crop, planting period and county.

How to File a Report

Producers can contact their FSA county office for acreage reporting deadlines that are specific to their county.

To file a crop acreage report, producers need to provide:

• Crop and crop type or variety;
• Intended use of the crop;

• Number of acres of the crop;
• Map with approximate boundaries for the crop;
• Planting date(s);
• Planting pattern, when applicable;
• Producer shares;
• Irrigation practice(s);
• Acreage prevented from planting, when applicable;
• Other information as required.

Acreage Reporting Exceptions

The following exceptions apply to acreage reporting dates:

• If the crop has not been planted by the acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 15 calendar days after planting is completed.
• If a producer acquires additional acreage after the acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 30 calendar days after purchase or acquiring the lease. Appropriate documentation must be provided to the county office.
• Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) policy holders should note that the acreage reporting date for NAP-covered crops is the earlier of the dates listed above or 15 calendar days before grazing or harvesting of the crop begins.

Farmers.gov Portal

Producers can access their FSA farm records, maps and common land units through the farmers.gov portal. Through a new mapping feature, producers can import and view other shapefiles, such as precision agriculture planting boundaries. This allows producers to view, save, print and label their own maps for acreage reporting purposes. To access mapping features and other helpful on-line tools, producers need level 2 eAuth access linked to their Business Partner customer record. Visit farmers.gov/account to learn how to create a farmers.gov account.

In addition to mapping tools, a farmers.gov account offers a variety of self-service opportunities for FSA and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) customers, including managing FSA farm loans and NRCS conservation contracts.

Video tutorials, including how to use mapping tools, are available on the farmers.gov YouTube channel. Learn more about a farmers.gov account.

More Information

To learn more about FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center. Producers can also prepare maps for acreage reporting as well as manage farm loans and view other farm records data and customer information by logging into their farmers.gov account. If you don’t have an account, sign up today.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America and committing to equity across the department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit?usda.gov.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized blending mandates in the Renewable Fuels Standard for 2023, 2024 and 2025; which left many in the biofuels industry disappointed.

EPA set overall biofuel volumes at 20.94 billion gallons in 2023, higher than the initial proposal earlier in the year of 20.82 billion gallons. However, EPA set lower targets for 2024 and 2025 than what was initially proposed with the target for 2024 at 21.54 billion gallons and 22.33 billion gallons for 2024.

The final numbers also show a 250 million gallon reduction in total corn-based ethanol volumes for 2024 and 2025; down from hat was originally proposed and set at 15 billion gallons for both years.

Many throughout the ethanol and biofuels industry have voiced their concern with the final numbers from EPA. You can view those remarks below and also read more from our partners at DTN/Progressive Farmer here: https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2023/06/21/epa-lowers-corn-ethanol-advanced-rfs

INDUSTRY REACTION BELOW:

Clean Fuels Slams EPA’s Final RFS Biomass-based Diesel Volumes

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Clean Fuels Alliance America expressed extreme disappointment with the Environmental Protection Agency’s final Renewable Fuel Standards for 2023, 2024 and 2025. EPA finalized moderate increases in the biomass-based diesel and non-cellulosic advanced volumes each year but did not increase the overall renewable fuel market. EPA failed to change biomass-based diesel volumes for 2023 despite the rapid increase in U.S. production of biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel during the first months of the year.

“EPA is undercutting the certainty that our industry hoped for from a three-year RFS rule,” said Kurt Kovarik, Vice President of Federal Affairs with Clean Fuels. “U.S. clean fuel producers, oilseed processors, fuel distributors and marketers have all made significant investments to grow the industry rapidly over the next several years. The industry responded to signals from the Biden administration and Congress aiming to rapidly decarbonize U.S. fuel markets, particularly aviation, marine, and heavy-duty transport, and make clean fuels available to more consumers. The volumes EPA finalized today are not high enough to support those goals.”

“Clean Fuels appreciates the bipartisan support of Representatives, Senators and Governors who asked EPA to ensure that final volumes supported achievable, aggressive growth of advanced biofuel volumes,” Kovarik added. “It is a shame that EPA failed to fully consider the data provided by other federal agencies and industry experts demonstrating the upward trajectory of our industry.”

“Worst of all, EPA ignores the hundreds of millions of gallons of biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel generated in the first half of 2023,” Kovarik continued. “In past years when EPA set RFS volumes after the statutory deadline and after the compliance year is nearly half over, the agency properly accounted for available gallons and RINs.”

EPA’s Public Data for the Renewable Fuel Standard shows that qualifying biomass-based diesel production increased by more than 30% — or 400 million gallons – in the first five months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022. The Energy Information Administration’s Short Term Energy Outlook for June 2023 projects increases in U.S. production of biodiesel and renewable diesel of more than 800 million gallons in 2023 and 900 million gallons in 2024. In the final rule released today, EPA increases RFS volumes for these fuels by only 590 million gallons over the three-year period: 60 million gallons in 2023, 220 million gallons in 2024, and 310 million gallons in 2025.

Growth Energy: EPA’s Final RFS Rule Undermines Low-Carbon Biofuel Growth Potential

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor issued the following statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2023-2025 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), also known as the Set.

“The RFS remains one of America’s most successful clean energy policies, but, yet again, its full potential as a climate solution remains untapped. EPA’s decision to lower its ambitions for conventional biofuels runs counter to the direction set by Congress and will needlessly slow progress toward this administration’s climate goals.

“We should be expanding market opportunities for higher blends like E15, not leaving carbon reductions on the table.

“While the final rule offers a modest improvement in advanced volumes, EPA inexplicably failed to extend that recognition to conventional biofuels. The bioethanol industry has more than adequate supply to meet the higher volumes that were originally proposed in December 2022. Choosing not to put that supply to good use in decarbonizing the transportation sector runs counter to this administration’s previously-stated commitments and undermines the goal of reaching net-zero by 2050.”

Background

Under the terms of a consent decree with Growth Energy, EPA was required to finalize the RVOs for 2023-2025 by June 14, 2023. At EPA’s request, Growth Energy consented to a one-week delay in the deadline and the final volumes were released publicly this morning.

In EPA’s final rule:

-Total RVO gallons increase by 1.37 billion gallons (BG) from 2023 to 2025.
-Total advanced D5 RIN gallons increase by 1.37BG from 2023 to 2025.
-Bio-based diesel D4 RIN gallons remain unchanged from the proposal in 2023.
-Cellulosic gallons reflect the removal of approximately 1.8BG of eRINs, which have been removed from the final rule, and the increase of non-eRIN cellulosic volumes, primarily for biogas.
-Total non-cellulosic advanced gallons increase by 850 million gallons (MG) between 2023 and 2025.
-Implied conventional gallons remain flat at 15BG each year of the proposal (with 250MG in 2023 for ACEI remand). Note that in EPA’s original proposal, conventional gallons would have increased to 15.25 BG in 2024 and 2025.

RFA: Final RVO Rule Fails to Deliver on Promise of Original Proposal

The 2023-2025 Renewable Fuel Standard volumes finalized today by the Environmental Protection Agency mark an unfortunate step backward from the volumes that were originally proposed, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

EPA’s final rule includes conventional renewable fuel requirements of 15 billion gallons for both 2024 and 2025, down from the proposed volumes of 15.25 billion for both years. RFA called the reductions “inexplicable and unwarranted.”

“The RFS was intended to drive continual growth in all categories of renewable fuels well beyond 2022; instead, today’s final rule flatlines conventional renewable fuels at 15 billion gallons and misses a valuable opportunity to accelerate the energy sector’s transition to low- and zero-carbon fuels,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “By removing half a billion gallons of lower-carbon, lower-cost fuel, today’s rule needlessly forfeits an opportunity to further enhance U.S. energy security and provide more affordable options at the pump for American drivers.”

Despite the rule’s failure to finalize the strong proposed conventional renewable fuel volumes, the action “includes solid volumes for other renewable fuel categories and brings some stability and predictability to the marketplace for the next two and a half years,” Cooper said. “Despite the disappointing reduction in conventional renewable fuel numbers, we appreciate the fact that President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan have continued to prioritize renewable fuels in our nation’s energy and climate strategy.”

EPA’s final rule includes a total volume obligation of 20.94 billion gallons for 2023, of which 15 billion gallons will come from conventional renewable fuels like corn ethanol. The rule also includes a supplemental volume requirement for 250 million gallons in 2023 to make up for illegally waived volumes in 2016. EPA finalized total volumes of 21.54 billion and 22.33 billion gallons in 2024 and 2025, respectively, with conventional renewable fuel requirements of 15 billion gallons for each of those two years.

RFA also welcomed EPA’s announcement that it would not implement RINs for electricity (eRINs) as part of today’s final rule. As the organization noted in oral testimony and written comments to EPA, the agency’s initial proposal for incorporating eRINs into the RFS was overly complex and inconsistent with RIN generation provisions for all other renewable fuels. RFA joined several other stakeholder groups in encouraging EPA to reconsider its eRIN proposal and take more time to get it right.

“We appreciate that EPA was responsive to the many questions and concerns raised by numerous stakeholders regarding eRINs, and we believe the agency did the right thing by calling a timeout on implementation of those provisions,” Cooper said. “We look forward to continuing to engage with EPA on the best methods for bringing renewable electricity into the RFS program.”

RFA provided substantive written comments on EPA’s proposal and offered oral testimony during a public hearing in January.

ACE Statement on EPA’s Final RFS Ruling for 2023–2025 Volumes

NCGA: EPA Sets Final Renewable Fuel Volumes for 2023-2025

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released final volume requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2023, 2024 and 2025, providing for annual growth in total renewable fuel volumes, although with lower conventional biofuel volumes than EPA had proposed.

Read More

After dropping below growth neutral in March, the June Rural Mainstreet Index expanded above the threshold for a third-straight month to its highest point since May 2022. That’s according to the June monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a ten-state region dependent on agriculture.

The overall June reading is 56.9, the highest since 2022 and up from May’s 55.8. The index range is zero to 100, with 50 representing growth neutral. “After negative growth during the first quarter of 2023, the Rural Mainstreet economy experienced positive but slow economic growth for the second quarter,” says Ernie Goss of Creighton University.

The region’s farmland price index jumped from 56.3 in May to 59.3 in June. Bank CEOs ranked Federal Reserve rate hikes as the greatest challenge ahead during the next 12 months. Bankers also continue to have a positive outlook for payment of farm loans in the next year.

The farm bill clock is ticking, with little sign yet of progress toward writing a new law by the September 30th expiration of the existing farm bill. There’s no text yet on the Senate side, and a cautionary commitment by House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson to draft a bill before the August recess.

Thompson; “We have three options for the upcoming farm bill: Let it expire, pass an extension, or craft a bill that works for farmers, ranchers, producers, and foresters nationwide. Of course, this is predicated on bipartisanship and the will of the House and Senate.”

The recent GOP-White House debt limit/budget deal left little if any room for new farm bill spending. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the concern is mounting; “I’m increasingly concerned that we’re going to fall behind on getting a farm bill done by September 30th and have to give a one-year extension.”

Farm bills have traditionally taken months to write, sometimes more than a year to finish. That’s complicated this year by the tight budget, an ideological fight over expanding SNAP work requirements, and the usual regional fights between Midwest and Southern crops.

Senate Ag Ranking Republican John Boozman of Arkansas at this year’s Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Forum said; “Southern agriculture’s different than the ‘Is’—Illinois, Iowa, Indiana…the Great Plains are different. California’s very different—they can grow anything.”

Boozman has already warned he won’t support a farm bill without increased help for his rice, cotton, and other producers struggling with steep input costs. The big question is where that money will come from, and can a consensus be reached before the 2018 farm bill runs out?

A new survey from One Country Project shows that voters think health care in rural communities is markedly worse than in the rest of America.

Those findings were revealed soon after the OCP hosted its annual Rural Progress Summit. Stakeholders from across the U.S. gathered to discuss challenges facing rural communities and the importance of elevating rural priorities on the national stage. “Access to quality, affordable health care shouldn’t be determined by your zip code,” says OCP Founder and former Senator Heidi Heitkamp.

More than 130 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. That leaves rural residents with no option but to travel hours to the nearest medical center, which is especially dangerous in a life-threatening emergency. Air ambulances are often relied on, and the survey shows overwhelming support, at 84 percent, for increasing the Medicare reimbursement rate for air medical services. Medicare currently covers just 50 percent of the associated costs.

The Public Lands Council launched a grassroots campaign regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s Proposed rule titled “Conservation and Landscape Health.” The proposed rule creates significant concerns about changes to the BLM’s authority to manage the nation’s public lands and opens the door to removing livestock grazing from the range.

“The BLM must follow the law in managing our nation’s public lands for multiple uses and sustained benefits for all,” says PLC Executive Director Kaitlynn Glover. “Public lands grazing is an important conservation tool that protects these landscapes and is integral to national food security.”

PLC also wants to remind the bureau that grazing is an essential use of America’s public lands, and they hope all stakeholders will join the agency in sending a letter to the BLM’s leadership underscoring the responsibility to be good partners, especially since they’ve “fallen short,” according to Glover. The agency stops accepting comments on July 5.

The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service is accepting applications from U.S. exporters for a trade mission to Santiago, Chile, September 25-29.

American agribusinesses will participate in business-to-business meetings with potential importers from both Chile and Peru. The trade mission coincides with Peru’s USDA-endorsed food trade show that offers additional networking opportunities for participants. “This year, we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of U.S.-Chile diplomatic relations,” says FAS Administrator Daniel Whitley. “Chile and the neighboring Peru are some of our key trading partners, representing the second and third-largest markets in South America.”

Total agricultural exports to these markets have grown significantly since establishing the Chile Free Trade Agreement and the Peru Trade Promotions Agreement. Exports to this region exceeded $2 billion in 2022. During January-April 2023, U.S. ag exports to Chile have increased by four percent from the same period last year. The region features relatively high per capita incomes and purchasing power.

As lawmakers prepare to write the next farm bill, one farm-state Senator says current weather events highlight the importance of crop insurance. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, says it’s a matter of having an abundant and affordable food supply.

She says; “We don’t want to be one of those countries that have seen escalating ag prices and also they have to import all their food. We want to be a country that grows crops, that produces meat that is able to export to the world as well as feed our own people. So, I think it’ll be a lesson and shows the need of crop insurance whenever we have difficult weather events, whether they be droughts, whether they be floods, whether they be any kind of disastrous storm, we’ve got to stand ready, and that is why we have this safety net in the farm bill.”

Klobuchar says food security is national security; “We’ve always been really smart about including in this bill, the nutrition programs, which includes schools and all kinds of other nutrition assistance to vessel support to pass the farm bill, because we do have some people from urban areas that don’t have big rural areas, that still support the farm bill because of the nutrition programs or the conservation program.”

Klobuchar has other priorities for agriculture as well; “One of the things that we want to make sure is that all of our FSA and our economic development agencies are strong, that’s always helpful. But the other is a pipeline of people and students going into ag, and so that’s why I’m one of the chief co-sponsors of a bill that focuses on community colleges offering training for those that want to go into ag.”

Story provided by NAFB News Service and Joe Gill, KASM, Albany, Minnesota

A former chair of the House Agriculture Committee is optimistic that Congress will pass the next farm bill on-time. Representative Frank Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican, says he believes it is possible to finish the 2023 Farm Bill in 2023.

Lucas; “One of the most important things we had to do was pass a piece of legislation dealing not only with the debt ceiling but setting spending levels for the next few years. The allocation process in the House and Senate is going on. As we wait for those final numbers in the House, Chairman Thompson is now moving us in the direction of not just hearing here in D.C., but also field hearings around the country laying the groundwork.”

Lucas says there are just a few weeks left to legislate in the current fiscal year, but says the Farm Bill is on track. “I’m an international optimist, but we only have a few weeks left in June to legislate, there’s a few weeks in July, the traditional August work period back home, and that brings us around to September, and we are starting to get down towards the end of the year,” according to Lucas. “So, don’t be surprised, as has been the case in almost all the farm bills in recent history, if we wind up with an extension, but we are now on track.”

Lucas talked about the steps that will need to take place to give farmers what they will need in this next farm bill, as he said he would rather have a one-year extension than have a weak Farm Bill for the next five years.

He says; “If a one-year extension means that we have a better set of budget numbers a year from now, if it helps facilitate a strong five-year Farm Bill, then yes, I will take an extension. After all, we got the ’14 Farm Bill two years after the previous bill was set to come to an end. We had to do the extensions, but it ultimately got us to the ’14 bill that became the base bill in ’18 that I believe will be the base bill then in 2023 or 2024, depending on what happens.”

Story provided by NAFB News Service and Ron Hays, Radio Oklahoma Network, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma