Gaylynn Covey, CED with the Brown County FSA is reminding producers to be aware of the following programs that have upcoming deadlines. Please call the FSA office at 325-643-2573 – it is very important to make an appointment as the office has lots of different programs going on right now so please be mindful of this.

Farm Program Sign Up

March 15, 2023, is the final day to enroll your farm into the 2023 ARC/PLC farm program. The County office has mailed those that have not signed up – so be looking for that important piece of mail. Please call the Brown County FSA today at 325-643-2573 for an appointment or to verify the status of your farm.

ELAP Notice of Loss

Brown County FSA is accepting 2023 notices of loss for ELAP which provides emergency assistance for water and feed transportation cost. These must be filed timely. So, if you have had any transportation as of January 1 you must have a Notice of Loss signed by January 31, 2023.

Livestock Forage Program

Brown County has once again triggered for LFP (Livestock Forage Program) and now taking the information for this program. Brown County trigger dates are:

• Grasses – 01/03/2023
• Small grain planted before October 1 – 11/01/2022.
• Small grans planted October 2 or later – 11/15/2022.

County trigger dates – All animals had to be owned, or under contract at this time. All animals had to be weaned on this date to be eligible. Calf weights will be based on this date also.

Mitigated Livestock: anything sold earlier than normal in 2022 DUE TO THE DROUGHT CONDITIONS.

Example: If you usually sell calves in November they do not count as mitigated because this is your normal practice. However, if you sold these calves in July because there was a lack of grazing, they would be considered mitigated.

Emergency Relief Program Phase 2

Program Information

• This program is based on your crop revenue only.

• Customers will establish their benchmark year as 2018 or 2019.

• Customers may select their disaster year as 2020, 2021, or both.
• Producers who earn a payment through ERP 2 are required to purchase.

crop insurance or NAP for the next two available crop years.

• Historically underserved producers (such as Beginning, Limited Resource,

Socially Disadvantaged & Veteran Farmers and Ranchers) should file a

CCC-860 form to ensure a higher payment rate.

• There is a workbook on the USDA website that can be filled out to help.

you calculate what your benchmark year(s) revenue, and your disaster.

year(s) revenue.

− ERP Website: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-andservices/

emergency-relief/index

− ERP Workbook: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSAPublic/

usdafiles/emergency-relief-program/pdfs/erp_tool_version_1_2_final.xlsm

Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program

Program Information

• This program is based on your crop revenue and livestock revenue.
• Customers will establish their benchmark year as 2018 or 2019.
• Customers must have at least a 15% loss to qualify for program payments.
• The only disaster year for PARP is crop year 2020.
• Historically underserved producers (such as Beginning, Limited Resource,

Socially Disadvantaged & Veteran Farmers and Ranchers) should file a

CCC-860 form to ensure a higher payment rate.

• There is a workbook on the USDA website that can be filled out to help.

you calculate your Allowable Gross Revenue for the applicable year(s).

− PARP Website: https://www.farmers.gov/coronavirus/pandemicassistance/

parp#eligibility

− PARP Workbook: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSAPublic/

usdafiles/help/fsa_parp_gross_revenue_tool.xlsm

***

When temperatures drop, the usual buzzing of bees disappears.

Where do they go? How do they survive winter – or do they survive at all? The answer varies and actually depends on the bees’ social lives.

From social honeybees to solitary carpenter bees, the way the insects survive greatly depends on their colony or solely on themselves.

Social bees, such as honeybees, tend to live in large colonies in hives. Honeybees, in particular, live in colonies containing a queen and between 10,000 and 50,000 workers.

“They live intricately together,” said Juliana Rangel, associate professor of apiculture in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University. “Imagine each little bee acting as like a cell in a body, and everyone is part of that body, and the body moves on its own.”

One of the abilities of this colony is the ability to thermoregulate.

According to Rangel, as soon as temperatures drop below 45-50 degrees, the bees will create a cluster and move together to form into a ball. Then, they start shivering to produce enough body heat to stay warm – sometimes 20 degrees warmer than the temperature outside.

The honeybees will remain in this ball throughout the entire winter. Rangel said they will not leave the colony to forage for food and will instead survive off of the honey stores in their hive.

USDA APPROVES VACCINE FOR HONEYBEES, A FIRST IN THE US

Also, bee colonies, particularly those living in tree cavities, will winterize their hives as the temperatures drop. According to Rangel, the bees will seal all crevices and holes in the cavity with a special glue they produce.

She added that the bee will also choose homes with smaller openings. In addition to it being a better line of defense, the smaller opening will ensure that less cold air will enter the hive during winter months.

Bumblebees and other bee species are considered semi-social in that they move back and forth between leading social and solitary life stages.

In the winter, bumblebees live as solitary individuals. Without the help of a colony, they survive winter by creating little burrows for themselves underground and remaining dormant for months.

“Their physiology just goes to the very lowest point of survivorship,” Rangel said. “They’re not dead. They’re just hibernating to withstand the cold temperature.”

WHERE IS THE WESTERN BUMBLEBEE?

Come spring, the warmer temperature cues the bees to reactivate their bodies again. They leave their burrows and make new colonies of between 100 and 200 individuals.

They become social individuals until cooler temperatures return in the fall.

Mason bees, carpenter bees and other bee species live their entire lives on their own.

According to Rangel, these bees either survive winter by being dormant underground – similar to the survival mechanism of bumblebees – or die within a year.