07/29/2023
Good Morning Farmers in CT!
This info is from several emails from Farm agencies in CT
My interest lies with the Hay makers. If you read down to the part where they say the “forage must be baled” This confuses me. So what I am reading is your “crop” that got damaged is not eligible unless it was a finished product which then makes absolute no sense because then ot would be able to be used to feed the goats or cows. When it is rotting on the fields cut or raked IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM! Farmers cannot leave this! It has to be pushed off. How do they do this? We do it with a bull dozer or tractor bucket but its hours of fuel and the field remain destroyed!! And now worse from ruts and the scraping. 😤
Read below
If you’ve suffered livestock feed or grazing losses due to recent flooding, you could be eligible for assistance through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP).
ELAP covers physically damaged or destroyed livestock feed that was purchased, or mechanically harvested forage or feedstuffs intended for use as feed for your eligible livestock. In order to be considered eligible, harvested forage must be baled. Forage that is only cut, raked or windrowed is not eligible. You must submit a notice of loss to their local FSA office within 30 calendar days of when the loss is apparent
Letter to us from NRCS-
July has been a very wet month for Litchfield County. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) wants to help.
If you farm in Litchfield County, and you sustained flood damage in July, 2023, please report the damage to the following three (3) agencies:
1. Connecticut Department of Agriculture – Go to this link: https://portal.ct.gov/DOAG/ADaRC/ADaRC/Disaster-Relief-Resources/Flooding
to report your losses.
2. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – Call 860-626-8852 and choose 3 for NRCS. NRCS will ask questions about contact information, location, flood damage, and especially about stream bank damage, erosion, gullying and debris.
3. USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) – Call 860-626-8852 and choose 2 for FSA. FSA will need to know crops lost and acres. They will also need to know if you have crop insurance.
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The 5 year renewal for farmer programs is coming….working on improvements
U.S. Specialty Crop Coalition Applauds Introduction of Bipartisan Legislation Addressing Farm Bill Priorities
In a letter to USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack requesting a federal disaster declaration for Connecticut farms for the second time this year, and the fifth time in four years, Gov. Ned Lamont wrote that it was clear from talking to flooded farmers that the current federal farm programs aren’t working.
“These farms are underinsured, or uninsured, and the programs available are not sufficient to provide the support necessary to manage years like this one,” wrote Lamont.
“Two pretty significant frost-freeze events that were detrimental to the maple season, the peach season, apples, blueberries, strawberries – that’s not something that normally happens,” Hurlburt said. “Then a July flood where we get 425 percent of the normal water we receive in July in the first two weeks is not a normal thing.”
The two disasters this year follow a disaster declaration for drought-stricken farms in 2022, and more for flooding following storms Ida and Elsa in 2021, and Isaias in 2020.
https://farmbillalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-25-23-release-SCFBA-endorses-bipartisan-legislation.pdf?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
