The 2014 Farm Bill implements a change that requires farmers to have a Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certification (AD-1026) on file. To be eligible for premium support on their federal crop insurance, that certification is required.
The 2014 Farm Bill continues the requirement that producers adhere to conservation compliance guidelines to be eligible for most programs administered by FSA and NRCS. This includes most financial assistance such as the new price and revenue protection programs, the Conservation Reserve Program, the Livestock Disaster Assistance programs, Marketing Assistance Loans and many other programs. It also includes the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program and other conservation programs implemented by NRCS.
When a farmer completes and submits the AD-1026 certification form, FSA and NRCS staff will review the associated farm records and outline any additional actions that may be required. FSA recently released a revised form AD- 1026, which is available at USDA Service Centers or at www.fsa.usda.gov. The deadline is June 1, 2015.
Seed Prices Announced
Producers have begun to think about seed quantities needed and are contacting their seed dealers. Some seed dealers published prices when contracts became available, while others are waiting.
Runner prices announced were as follows: 67 cents per pound certified nonhigh oleic cash to grower and 70 cents per pound fall payment; registered seed at 69 cents per pound, non-high-oleic, cash to grower and 72 cents per pound fall payment; high-oleic certified varieties at 70 cents per pound cash to grower and 72 cents per pound fall payment; registered high-oleic seed at 72 cents per pound cash to grower and 75 cents per pound fall payment.
IN BRIEF
• Producers have until June 1 to file form AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certification, with their FSA office.
• Fire destroys a silo full of peanuts, but others are saved by fire department efforts.
• Steve Brown, former UGA Extension entomologist, to take the reigns at The Peanut Foundation.
• Lonnie Fortner is new alternate member to National Peanut Board from Mississippi.
• Construction of peanut shelling plant, which hopes to employ 100 people, underway in Cordele, Ga.
• Record attendance is set at the Georgia Peanut Farm Show; show winners announced.
• Southern Peanut Growers Conference will move to Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Ga., in 2015.
Fire Destroys Peanuts In Cordele
GFA Peanut Company of Cordele, Ga., reports that a silo filled with approximately 900 tons of peanuts caught fire on February 2 and required fire departments from three counties to work over three days to extinguish the fire. Officials said a chemical on the peanuts caused them to heat up igniting the fire. Firefighters with the Crisp, Worth and Sumter Counties all assisted.
According to SGT Ben Bray of the Crisp County Sheriff ’s Office, an explosion occurred within the silo causing the top to come off. Officials pulled peanuts out of the silo in an attempt to slow the fire and managed to contain the fire to the one silo.
Brown To Head Peanut Foundation
Steve L. Brown, who retired from the University of Georgia in December 2014, has become the new executive director of the Peanut Foundation. At UGA, Brown was the Extension entomologist for peanuts and stored agricultural products. He spent much of the 1990s working on solutions to tomato spotted wilt virus, which threatened the industry at the time, and he worked with the American Peanut Shellers Association to provide training on the management of pests in farmer-stock peanuts.
New Member Appointed To NPB Board
Lonnie Fortner, Port Gibson, Miss., was recently appointed to serve as the alternate member for Mississippi on the National Peanut Board. Fortner’s term will begin immediately and end on Dec. 31, 2016.
Fortner operates Rock Lake Planting Company and grows runner peanuts in addition to cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans and sesame. Fortner is a third generation farmer who earned his Ag Economics degree from Mississippi State University. After working for the USDA Farm Service Agency, Fortner had the opportunity to help manage a farm, and he has worked his way up to a farming partnership.
Fortner is a 2012 graduate of the Peanut Leadership Academy. He is a board member of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association and the Farmers Coop. Fortner is also vice president of the Claiborne County Farm Bureau, chairman of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Peanut Advisory Board and chairman of the Mississippi Peanut Promotion Board. Additionally, he served as a member Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation State Committee and current member of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Crop Insurance and Transportation Committees.
Fortner and his wife Karen have two children, Beth and Lee. In his spare time, he enjoys hunting.