By Mayhah Suri
Reminder Crop Insurance Sales Closing Date is March 15 Those with spring planted crops or considering Whole Farm Revenue Insurance have just 4 days left to contact their crop insurance agents. Go see your crop insurance agent before that time to make changes to your crop insurance coverage. To get estimates on premium costs for various coverage, check out the crop insurance tool from the University of Illinois’s FarmDoc that includes Maryland’s information at http://go.umd.edu/iFarmTools. To learn more about crop insurance, see http://go.umd.edu/CropIns.
Miss the Big Data Webinar? It’s Online Now For those that missed last week’s economic issues related to ag data webinar, the recording is now online. Dr. Terry Griffin (@spaceplowboy) did a great job of laying out some of the basic economic issues related to ag data. The recording is available at http://go.umd.edu/AgDataVid
Farm Service Agency to Refund MPP Premiums This week FSA announced a refund of all voluntary premiums paid for with the dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) for 2016. MPP is one of the two safety programs authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill for dairy. To learn more about the refund see http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_Notice/mpp_31.pdf.
Review Your Estate Plan Friend of this blog, Tiffany Lashmet at Texas A&M Extension, has put together a nice article highlighting why you should review and update your estate plan. Life events have probably happened over the last year, and you need to take those into consideration with your estate plan. To read Tiffany’s article http://agrilife.org/texasaglaw/2016/03/07/review-and-update-your-estate-plan-now/. For more information on estate planning, see http://go.umd.edu/agtrans.
Public Divided Over Medical Marijuana Bill in Frederick County Agricultural Districts Public opinion was evenly split at a Tuesday hearing on a local bill that would allow medical marijuana to be grown in Frederick County’s agricultural districts. The legislation, sponsored by M.C. Keegan-Ayer, vice president of the Frederick County Council, has seen staunch resistance in the farming community, leading to a formal unanimous vote by the Frederick County Farm Bureau to oppose the growth of medical cannabis in agricultural zones, as well as processing and distribution of the plant, according to the Farm Bureau’s president, Robert Ramsburg To read more click here: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/agriculture/public-divided-on-bill-to-allow-growing-medical-marijuana-in/article_c9ed9bc5-4fd2-5b0d-9066-890b2c4694f1.html
New CSA Publication ALEI’s Mayhah Suri and Paul Goeringer have published a new report on the ALEI CSA project. The report talks about survey results from CSA owners and members, the model contract, and potential next steps for CSAs in Maryland. Check out the report at: http://go.umd.edu/CSAReport.