A rainy day across the state of Wisconsin on Wednesday kept staff of county Farm Service Agency offices extremely busy trying to answer questions and get dairy farms signed up for the revised Margin Protection Program(MPP). Enrollment deadline is the close of business Friday.
In a studio conversation with Pam Jahnke, Sandy Chalmers, State Executive Director of the Wisconsin Farm Service Agency, said they’ve had 4,800 conversations with dairy operators across the state as of Tuesday. She said as of Friday, May 25th, the state had enrolled 3,900 operators into the program and she estimated they were over 4,000 as of Wednesday. Of those already signed up, Chalmers said 300 were brand new to the program and had never been involved before.
Chalmers has also been informed that USDA has decided to disburse payments connected with the MPP program sooner as opposed to later. “We got word from Washington late last week that they will start issuing payments as of June 4th,” according to Chalmers. So depending on the type of coverage farms selected, they could see the money beginning next week.
Chalmers stressed the dairies must call their FSA county offices and make an appointment to get enrolled in the program. “We want to give them the very best service we can, so please call your office and get scheduled,” Chalmers requests. She also realizes that some offices may be overwhelmed with requests and will need to create a “wait” list. But only producers that are on that list by the close of business Friday will be accommodated.
Chalmers also updated listeners on the latest damage totals from the record snowfall that hit Wisconsin in April. She says her offices are still pulling damage totals together including lost buildings, livestock lost, and milk production impacts. Chalmers said they want to make sure they have all the details in place before submitting their estimates to USDA.