FARGO, N.D. -- Debra Crusoe, state director for the federal Farm Service Agency in Minnesota, says more than 725,000 acres are prevented plant status in that state.
Crusoe says no county-by-county information is available, but she perceives that most of those acres are in the 19 southeast counties where farmers also suffered winterkill on alfalfa, triggering disaster declarations. She says more county-by-county figures won't be known until after farmers report crop acres to the FSA offices.
The 19 counties in the southeast are opened for emergency grazing and will be opened for emergency haying on Aug. 2. CRP contract holders need to report the harvesting for a payment reduction. Not all CRP practices are eligible.
Minnesota farmers were about 80 percent finished with acreage reporting. The original deadline was July 15, but was extended to Aug. 2 because of the late planting season. Crusoe acknowledges that one problem has been slower-than-normal software responses internal to the FSA. She says those troubles have been coming in waves and seem to be improving because of efforts at headquarters in Washington, D.C.
She says it is possible that some counties may need to use registers to schedule crop reporting appointments after the Aug. 2 deadline.
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Meanwhile, North Dakota reports that nearly 4.4 million acres of the state's 22 million cropped acres are in prevented plant status in 2013.
