(KMAland) -- The federal agencies that serve farmers in KMAland continue to cope with COVID-19 restrictions amid key looming deadlines.
Local county offices for the Farm Service Agency remain closed throughout Iowa, utilizing virtual meetings and dropboxes to accomplish important business. Dan Wells is Adair County FSA Executive Director. He says county offices remained closed to protect workers and the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"All of our offices are open, but unfortunately are closed to the public," said Wells. "We are all in different phases as we work toward reopening our offices. Our main concern, obviously, is protecting the health and safety of our employees and the customers we serve. Our offices have been and continue to be extremely busy this year. Continuing on, we appreciate everyone's patience during these challenges times."
Wells says the inability to have face-to-face contact with producers regularly has made the job for FSA offices a little tougher.
"Now that the offices aren't really open to the public, it's more difficult and we just don't have that contact with our producers like we've had in the past," said Wells. "It is important to keep your records up to date. Don't forget to stop by or give us a call to update your records. We've got dropboxes outside, so it's always best to give us a call if you've got some personal documents that you want to drop off."
Wells reminds producers that even if the FSA offices are closed, they need to make sure the office has their most up-to-date information.
"If you're purchasing new farms or selling your farms, make sure that we keep those documents up-to-date with us," said Wells. "Also, if you've rented new ground, we need to keep that information up-to-date also. If there's been any name changes or if you've created a trust or a corporation, we need to have those documents in our office also to keep our records up-to-date. For everybody to receive payments, if you've made any changes in your financial institutions, to receive your direct deposits make sure we have that information available to us."
Despite the closures, important crop insurance deadlines are approaching. March 15th is the final day for producers to sign up for federal crop insurance programs, like Agriculture Risk Coverage or Price Loss Coverage. Wells says that while many producers wait until the last minute to complete their sign up, early enrollment helps his office out tremendously.
"The sooner that you can make that decision, the better," said Wells. "Here in Adair County, we've got over 2,000 producers that we have to service. It would be impossible for us to do that in the last week of sign-up. If you're thinking about getting started into that, let's go ahead and get started, get the contracts run and then if you change your mind before March 15th, you can come back to us, give us a call and we can make those changes, if you decide to go into a different program than what you initially did."
In addition to crop insurance deadlines, producers have until February 12th to complete sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program.
