By Ashley Ellixson
Happy Friday! Hopefully everyone is staying warm and shoveling away all that snow from yesterday. Spring is surely not far away (crossing my fingers!). Below is this week’s ag news updates, enjoy and have a great weekend!
Caroline County is Top Ag County– According to the results from a federal nationwide census done every five years, and the farm bureau announced its ranking at its annual farm bureau banquet Friday, Feb. 27, at the Goldsboro Fire Hall. Caroline County is number one in barley, wheat and vegetables. Number two in soybeans and total grain sales. Caroline County does more agriculture sales than the bottom ten counties combined. http://www.myeasternshoremd.com/news/caroline_county/article_c5ff9d28-dc76-5f68-ae01-ef3c253574c2.html
MDA Launches 2015 “Manure Happens” Campaign– The Maryland Department of Agriculture has launched a campaign to help educate citizens on how farmers manage manure. The campaign launched March 1st in newspapers and social media sites. To read more about the campaign click the following link: http://news.maryland.gov/mda/press-release/2015/02/27/mda-launches-2015-manure-happens-campaign/
New Crop Insurance Publication Available – The 2014 Farm Bill replaced the AGR and AGR-Lite crop insurance programs with a new Whole Farm Crop Insurance program. Whole Farm provides a risk management tool for all commodities on a farm under one policy. A fact sheet laying out the new policy for Maryland producers was released this week. You can view the new publication here http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/16317.
Spring crop signup deadline fast approaching – The deadline to purchase crop insurance for spring planted crops is fast approaching. Coverage on corn, soybeans, and other spring planted crops must be purchased by March 16th. RMA also ended the price discovery period for spring planted crops with projected price of $4.15/bu for corn and $9.73/bu for soybeans. For more information on the 2015 crop insurance decision, see http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2015/03/crop-insurance-decisions-for-2015.html.
USDA Provides One-Time Extension of Deadline to Update Base Acres or Yield History for ARC/PLC Programs-On Feb. 27, 2015 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a one-time extension will be provided to producers for the new safety-net programs established by the 2014 Farm Bill, known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC). The final day to update yield history or reallocate base acres has been extended one additional month, from Feb. 27, 2015 until March 31, 2015. The final day for farm owners and producers to choose ARC or PLC coverage also remains March 31, 2015.http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/newsReleases?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=ner&newstype=newsrel&type=detail&item=nr_20150227_rel_0051.html
USDA Announces Commodity Credit Corporation Lending Rates for March 2015- On March 2, 2015 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) today announced interest rates for March 2015. The CCC borrowing rate-based charge for March is 0.250 percent, unchanged from 0.250 percent in February. http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/newsReleases?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=ner&newstype=newsrel&type=detail&item=nr_20150302_rel_0022.html