Now Accepting Applications for the 2023-24 OACD Auxiliary Scholarship!

Now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 OACD AUXILIARY Oklahoma High School Seniors Conservation Auxiliary Scholarship!

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION

The Oklahoma Auxiliary Scholarship is intended to encourage qualified students to increase their interest and awareness of the mission of Conservation.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

• Scholarship applicant must be a child or grandchild of a District Director/Manager, Conservation Employee, or NRCS seeking a higher education at a Trade School, College or University.

• Applicant must have an over all 2.5 Grade Point Average

• Applicant must be enrolled in a Trade School, College or Universityby Fall of 2024

• Applicant must be a full-time student.

All applications must be submitted to Robyn Caughlin by January 8, 2024 at robertacaughlin@icloud.com.

Amplified Oklahoma - Oklahoma’s Conservation Heritage

This conservation podcast was produced recently by friends at the OSU Library.  They partnered with the OSU Oral History Research Program on the podcast.  The podcast episode features excerpts from six Oklahoma conservationists that were interviewed for the Oklahoma Conservation Heritage Oral History Collection (Jimmy Emmons, Scotty Herriman, Cheryl Cheadle, Kevin Norton, Clay Pope and Larry Cladwell). 

Listen here

FIRST IN THE NATION WATERSHED DAM: CLOUD CREEK SITE No. 1 CELEBRATES 75 YEARS

July 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the dedication of Cloud Creek Detention Reservoir No. 1 on July 8, 1948. That day thousands of people from across Oklahoma and the United States came to the Troy Orr farm, a few miles southeast of Cordell in Washita County, to take part in celebrating completion of the nation’s first upstream watershed dam — first in the country to be built as part of a national program authorized by the 1944 Flood Control Act (P.L.534).

Read the full story here

AVOID FRAUD!!

Shared from Rural Coalition

Avoid Scams and Fraud in the Food and Farmworker Relief  & Section 22007 Discrimination Financial Assistance Programs - Many entities who are not authorized to provide assistance for Food and Farmworker Relief are charging workers to make an unauthorized application for a program that has no cost to apply.  Similarly, many attorneys and other entities are sending notices to farmers and ranchers asking you to sign a retainer that requires the producer to share a percentage of any claim awarded - this discrimination financial assistance program is also free, and the program has not yet begun.  See More information on 22007 Discrimination Financial Assistance and on avoiding scams in this program. We will inform you as soon as the program begins. If you see or receive notices from attorneys or entities offering to help you apply for either of these programs please take photos & send them to us at farmers@ruralco.org


USDA Extends Application Deadline for Revenue Loss Programs to July 14

Contact: FPAC.BC.Press@usda.gov


Nine Partner Organizations to Provide Assistance with ERP Phase Two Applications

 
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is extending the deadline for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase Two and Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) to July 14, 2023, to give producers more time to apply for assistance. The original deadline was June 2. 

Additionally, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is partnering with nine organizations to provide educational and technical assistance to agricultural producers and provide assistance in completing an ERP Phase Two application. The extended deadline will give producers more time to work with these partner organizations and apply for assistance.  

“Farm Service Agency recognizes that there is a learning curve for producers applying for our new revenue-based programs and we want to make sure producers have the time they need to apply for assistance,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “Partnering with these organizations through cooperative agreements provides additional educational and technical assistance to producers who may need help with the Emergency Relief Program Phase Two application process. The deadline extension gives producers more time to locate and work with these organizations to complete their program application.”  

Cooperative Agreements for ERP Phase Two Application Assistance  

Through cooperative agreements with FSA, the following organizations are providing free assistance to producers across the United States and territories.    

Depending on a producer’s location, these nine partners can provide assistance either by phone or through online meeting software like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.   

There is never a charge for technical assistance provided by FSA employees or cooperative agreement recipients. These organizations will assist producers with completing the application and any follow-up future insurance coverage requirements. Producers who receive ERP payments are statutorily required to purchase crop insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage for the next two available crop years. These organizations will not collect producer records, complete or sign the application form, or act on the producer’s behalf in any way throughout this process.     

Find more information on FSA cooperative agreements and contact information for the nine organizations please visit fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/cooperative-agreements/index.  

PARP Application Assistance
USDA will host a webinar that focus on completing the PARP application form on June 8, 2023 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. eastern with members of the National Farm Income Tax Extension Committee. Register here.

Eligibility   

To be eligible for ERP Phase Two, producers must have suffered a decrease in allowable gross revenue in 2020 or 2021 due to necessary expenses related to losses of eligible crops from a qualifying natural disaster event. Assistance will be primarily to producers of crops that were not covered by Federal Crop Insurance or NAP, since crops covered by Federal Crop Insurance and NAP were included in the assistance under ERP Phase One.   

To be eligible for PARP, an agricultural producer must have been in the business of farming during at least part of the 2020 calendar year and had a 15% or greater decrease in allowable gross revenue for the 2020 calendar year, as compared to a baseline year.  

FSA offers an online ERP tool and PARP tool that can help producers determine what is considered allowable gross revenue for each respective program.  

Producers should contact their local FSA office to make an appointment to apply for ERP Phase Two and PARP assistance. Producers should also keep in mind that July 15 is a major deadline to complete acreage reports for most crops. FSA encourages producers to complete the ERP Phase Two application, PARP application and acreage reporting during the same office visit.   

More Information   

For more information, view the ERP Phase Two Fact Sheet, PARP Fact Sheet, the ERP Phase Two-PARP Comparison Fact Sheet, ERP Phase Two application video tutorial, PARP application video tutorial, myth-buster blog or contact your local USDA Service Center.     

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.     

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.


USDA is Providing $130 Million in Assistance to Help Farmers Facing Financial Risk

To date, over $1 billion in immediate assistance is providing relief to more than 20,000 distressed borrowers thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that nearly $130 million in additional, automatic financial assistance has been obligated for qualifying farm loan program borrowers who are facing financial risk. The announcement is part of the $3.1 billion to help distressed farm loan borrowers that was provided through Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Since the IRA was signed by President Biden in August 2022, including the payments announced today, USDA is providing approximately $1.1 billion in immediate assistance to more than 20,000 distressed borrowers.

“Through the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress directed USDA to deliver financial assistance to distressed farm loan borrowers as quickly as possible, and that is what we are delivering to help producers across the country stay on their land,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA is hard at work to provide our most vulnerable producers the opportunity to generate long-term stability and success. Our goal is to make sure we provide producers access to the tools they need to help get back to a financially viable path and ultimately succeed as thriving agricultural businesses.”

Borrowers who received these automatic payments include Farm Service Agency (FSA) direct loan borrowers whose interest exceeded principle owed on outstanding debts; borrowers who had a balance up to 60 days past due as of Sept. 30, 2022 and remained delinquent; and borrowers with a recent restructure between Feb. 28, 2020, through March 27, 2023, or who had accepted an offer to restructure on or before March 27, 2023, but had not yet closed that restructure.

Individual Applications for Farmers Seeking Assistance

In May, FSA will begin accepting and reviewing individual distressed borrower assistance requests from direct loan borrowers who missed a recent installment or are unable to make their next scheduled installment. All FSA borrowers should have received a letter detailing the process for seeking this type of assistance even before they become delinquent. As the letter details, borrowers who are within two months of their next installment may seek a cashflow analysis from FSA using a recent balance sheet and operating plan to determine their eligibility.  Also in May, FSA borrowers will receive a letter detailing a new opportunity to receive assistance if they took certain extraordinary measures to avoid delinquency on their loans, such as taking on or refinancing more debt, selling property, or cashing out retirement or college savings accounts. FSA also plans to begin working through these types of cases in May.

As USDA learns more about the types of situations financially distressed farmers are facing, the Department will continue to update borrowers and the public about new eligibility criteria. USDA will also provide regular updates about its progress in deploying this funding to farmers who need it.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.


Attn: Farmers and Ranchers! Update on IRA Debt Relief

On Monday, March 27, 2023, USDA announced additional assistance for distressed farmers facing financial risk. Beginning in April, USDA will provide approximately $123 million in additional automatic financial assistance for qualifying Farm Loan Program (FLP) direct loan borrowers who are facing financial risk, as part of the $3.1 billion to help distressed farm loan borrowers that was provided through Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Distressed borrower’s eligibility for these new categories of automatic payments will be determined based on their circumstances as of March 27, 2023.



The amount of new assistance a distressed borrower receives will be based on the first category of distress for which they qualify below: 

1) Assistance to borrowers whose interest owed on their qualifying direct FLP loan debt exceeds the principal owed. This assistance will be determined on a loan-by-loan basis and will be equal to the outstanding interest as of March 27, 2023, on those loans.

2) Assistance to FLP direct loan borrowers who were past due on a qualifying direct loan as of September 30, 2022, but by fewer than 60 days, or became delinquent between September 30, 2022, and October 18, 2022. Qualifying borrowers are those who remain delinquent on those loans today. This assistance will be equal to the amount of the delinquency and the next installment for all direct FLP loans held by the borrower, not to exceed the remaining balance. 

3) Assistance to borrowers who restructured, or who have accepted an offer to restructure, a qualifying direct FLP loan after February 28, 2020 through primary loan servicing available through FSA. This assistance will be equal to any outstanding delinquency and the next installment for all direct FLP loans held by the borrower, not to exceed the remaining balance. For any borrowers who have accepted an offer to restructure, payment will be equal to the next installment for all direct FLP loans post-restructure. 

Distressed borrowers who qualify for the above forms of assistance and are currently in bankruptcy will be addressed case-by-case as the review process announced in October 2022 for complex cases.

Similar to the automatic payments announced in October 2022, qualifying borrowers will receive an individual letter detailing the assistance as payments are made. 

Update on Previous Assistance Announced in October 2022 for Complex Cases:

USDA continues to conduct a case-by-case review of about 1,600 complex cases for potential initial relief payments, including cases of borrowers in foreclosure or bankruptcy.  

Additionally, USDA is making payments using separate pandemic relief funding totaling roughly $66 million on over 7,000 direct loans to borrowers who used the USDA Farm Service Agency’s disaster-set-aside option during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of these payments have been processed and USDA anticipates it will complete all such payments in April 2023.

Important Update on Potential Tax Implications for IRA Payments Received:

In early April 2023, USDA will send a specific set of revised tax documents, educational materials and resources to borrowers who received assistance in 2022, including a link to a webinar hosted by a group of farm tax experts to provide education on the options available. USDA cannot provide tax advice and encourages borrowers to consult their own tax professional, but FSA is providing educational materials for borrowers to be aware of the options. USDA has tax-related resources available at farmers.gov/taxes.  

USDA will continue to work with the Department of Treasury to help borrowers understand the potential tax implications from the receipt of an IRA payment, including that options may be available to potentially avoid or alleviate any tax burden incurred as a result of receiving this financial assistance.

For more details on the Inflation Reduction Act Section 22006, including process and payments to date, please see USDA’s fact sheet and news release below.

Rural Coalition will continue to provide updates on assistance on direct farm loans from USDA as they become available. Please email Rural Coalition atFarmers@ruralco.org if you have specific questions.



We urge the organizations and producers receiving this message to share with other farmers and ranchers who would benefit.

In Cooperation, 

-The Rural Coalition Team

Grego Named Conservation Legislator of the Year

Communications & Public Affairs
March 6, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Rep. Jim Grego
Office: (405) 557-7381

Grego Named Conservation Legislator of the Year 

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton, this week was named the 2022 Conservation Legislator of the Year by the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts.

In the award recognition ceremony, it was noted there are many legislators passionate about conservation with each being vital to the success of private lands and voluntary conservation in Oklahoma.

"However, there are a few legislators that go above and beyond to preserve Oklahoma’s soil and water. Representative Grego is always willing to meet with our district directors to discuss natural resource concerns and how we can best preserve the soil and water of Oklahoma. Personally, Representative Grego has implemented many conservation practices on his own cattle operation and has participated in both the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program," awardees noted.

Grego has been a cooperator with the Latimer County Conservation District for over 34 years. He served for 23 years on the Latimer County Conservation District board, including 20 of those years as chairman. He also served as the Area V Commissioner from 2010 to 2015.

The association acknowledged that during his time in the Legislature, Grego has helped provide a provision that allows for conservation districts to purchase feral swine traps and was instrumental in providing funding for the Office of Geographic Information.

"Conservation of our Oklahoma natural resources is of the utmost importance to me and to those who I serve in the Oklahoma House of Representatives," Grego said. "It's an honor to receive this recognition from a group of my peers. I guarantee I will continue my efforts toward best practices of preserving Oklahoma's soil, water and other resources."

-END- 

Jim Grego serves District 17 in the Oklahoma House of representatives. His district includes Latimer County and part of Pittsburg County.