NIOBRARA COUNTY UPDATES – OCTOBER 2026

The following information was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

Niobrara County Notes

Greetings Niobrara County Farmers and Ranchers!

While our drought conditions have improved over the past few months in many areas, there are a few important notes concerning 2026 drought programs:

Niobrara County and all surrounding counties have triggered for additional transportation of feed, livestock and water for the 2026 calendar year. If any of these situations are occurring on your operation, please contact the office for more information about what information will be needed to complete an application.

Niobrara County and all surrounding counties have also triggered for the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) for grazing losses due to drought in 2026. We would like anyone who is impacted by the drought and would like more information, or plans to apply, to reach out the office as soon as possible. We are expecting significant participation and heavier workload than normal due to the conditions this year, and would like to get folks' applications worked through sooner than later. Even if you aren't sure that you'd like your payment in this calendar year, please reach out so we can start the process with you and get as much information from you as we can early in the signup timeframe. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2027.

We now have begun enrollment for 2026 ARC/PLC on eligible base acres, the deadline to make your elections and enroll in ARC/PLC for 2026 is December 11, 2026. Enrollment for 2027 will begin November 2, 2026. Please contact the office for more information about ARC/PLC or to make an appointment.

If you have any changes to your operation, please make sure to let the Niobrara County FSA Office know! Changes can include forming entities, the addition or reduction of members or their shares in an established entity, buying or selling land, adding or removing leases, or even address, phone number, or banking information changes. The sooner you update us, the easier program signups will be completed.

As always, be sure to let us know of any damage/loss caused by adverse weather events.

Due to heavy disaster program workloads, Niobrara County staff cannot provide individual outreach to promote farm programs. Producers are responsible for staying informed and initiating contact regarding available services and programs. Stay updated on FSA programs through our monthly email news bulletin, quarterly printed newsletter, and Farmers.gov. You can also reach out to County Committee members or call our office directly for assistance.

As we continue to stay busy with new programs, please call the office at 307-334-2953 ext. 2 before making your trip to the office. If we can prepare for your visit, we are less likely to miss any required paperwork which might mean another trip to the office.

Kimberly Nusbaum, CED

Please note the following important dates and deadlines:

November 11th OFFICE CLOSED Veterans Day Holiday

November 15th - 2027 Acreage Reporting Deadline Fall-seeded crops

November 26th OFFICE CLOSED Thanksgiving Day Holiday

December 1st Deadline to obtain 2027 NAP Coverage

December 11th Deadline to elect/enroll in 2026 ARC/PLC

Within 15 days of noticing crop loss File NAP Notice of Loss

As soon as loss is apparent Report LIP/ELAP losses

USDA Reminds Producers to File Crop Acreage Reports

After fall planting is complete, agricultural producers should make an appointment with the Niobrara County Farm Service Agency (FSA) to complete crop acreage reports before the applicable deadline.

How to File a Report

A crop acreage report documents a crop grown on a farm or ranch, its intended use and location. Producers should file an accurate crop acreage report for all crops and land uses, including failed acreage and prevented planted acreage before the applicable deadline.

The following acreage reporting dates are applicable in Niobrara County:

November 15, 2026 All fall-seeded crops

To file a crop acreage report, producers need to provide:

Crop and crop type or variety

Intended crop use

Number of crop acres

Map with approximate crop boundaries

Planting date(s)

Planting pattern, when applicable

Producer share(s)

Irrigation practice(s)

Acreage prevented from planting, when applicable

Other required information

Acreage Reporting Details

The following exceptions apply to acreage reporting dates:

If the crop has not been planted by the acreage reporting deadline, then the acreage must be reported no later than 15 calendar days after planting is completed.

If a producer acquires additional acreage after the acreage reporting deadline, then the acreage must be reported no later than 30 calendar days after purchase or acquiring the lease. Appropriate documentation must be provided to the county office.

Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) policy holders should note that the acreage reporting date for NAP-covered crops is the acreage reporting date or 15 calendar days before grazing or crop harvesting begins, whichever is earlier.

Producers with perennial forage crops should check with their local FSA office to see if their crops are eligible for continuous certification, which rolls the certified acreage forward each year until a change is made.

Prevented Planted Acreage

Producers should also report the crop acreage they intended to plant but were unable to because of a natural disaster, including drought. Prevented planted acreage must be reported on form CCC-576, Notice of Loss, no later than 15 calendar days after the final planting date as established by FSA and USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA).

Farmers.gov Portal

Producers can access their FSA farm records, maps, and common land units through the farmers.gov customer portal. The portal allows producers to export field boundaries as shapefiles and import and view other shapefiles, such as precision agriculture boundaries within farm records mapping. Producers can view, print and label their maps for acreage reporting purposes. A login.gov account that is linked to a USDA customer record is required to use the portal.

Producers can visit farmers.gov/account to learn more about creating an account. Producers who have the authority to act on behalf of another customer as a grantee via an FSA-211 Power of Attorney form, Business Partner Signature Authority or as a member of a business with signature authority can now access information for the business in the farmers.gov portal.

Electronic Geospatial Acreage Reporting

Acreage reports using precision agriculture planting boundaries can be filed electronically with an approved insurance provider or an authorized third-party provider, who will then share the file with FSA staff. Producers should notify their local FSA office if they submitted an electronic geospatial acreage report containing precision planting boundaries that they want to use as part of their FSA acreage report.

More Information

For more information, producers should contact the Niobrara County FSA office at 307-334-2953, Ext. 2.

USDA Announces 2026 and 2027 Enrollment for Key Price and Revenue Safety Net Programs, Completes First Base Acre Increase in Two Decades

Agricultural producers can soon begin enrolling in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently updated to include more than 30 million new base acres. This expansion, the first in 20 years, was made possible by the Working Families Tax Cuts Act and is part of USDA's efforts to put Farmers First.

Now that the base allocation process is complete, producers can make elections and enroll for the 2026 crop year from Sept. 16 through Dec. 11, 2026, and for the 2027 crop year from Nov. 2, 2026, through March 15, 2027. Because eligible acres exceeded the nationwide 30-million-acre cap, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) is applying an across-the-board, prorated reduction of 3.69% to all newly allocated base acres.

"President Trump and Secretary Rollins are putting Farmers First by providing increased access to the farm safety net," said Under Secretary Richard Fordyce. "In addition to expanded base acres, farmers now also have the opportunity to change their program election to best support the economic viability of their operations."

Base Allocation Notifications

The opportunity for landowners to review their base allocation summaries and take necessary action ended Aug. 31, 2026. This included correcting inaccurate information, designating subsequent acres or opting out of adding base acres. Landowners did not lose base acres through the base allocation process.

If landowners did not notify FSA of changes, the base allocation summary is considered accurate and complete; however, an across-the-board factor will apply. FSA determined the base allocation percentage reduction using all acreage reported as eligible, and new base acres will automatically be allocated to farms after applying the 3.69% reduction.

Base allocation notifications will be available beginning Sept. 16, 2026. Landowners can access notifications online at fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc using a Login.gov account. Landowners who do not currently have a Login.gov account can contact their FSA county office to obtain their base allocation notification beginning Sept. 16, 2026.

Enrollment Period

Producers can now change their election and enroll in ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which both provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual (ARC-IC), which protects the entire farm. Although election changes for 2026 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year. Existing multi-year contracts ended in 2025, but producers have the option to sign a new multi-year contract for 2026 through 2031. Producers who opt out of a multi-year contract can enroll for the 2027 crop year starting Nov. 2, 2026, through March 15, 2027.

If producers do not submit their 2026 election by Dec. 11, 2026, their election remains the same as their 2025 election for crops on the farm, and the farm is ineligible for payments for the 2026 program year. Landowners cannot enroll in either program unless they have a share interest in the farm.

Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.

Some land grant universities offer web-based decision tools to help producers make informed election decisions using crop data specific to their respective farming operations.

Producers can make an appointment with their local FSA office to complete ARC and PLC elections and enrollment.

Crop Insurance Considerations

Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC election and enrollment can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products.

Producers can now add SCO coverage or the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) regardless of their ARC or PLC election. Previously, producers who elected ARC-CO or ARC-IC were ineligible to purchase the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider for the same acres, but The Working Families Tax Cuts Act removed this restriction.

Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres for that farm.

Crop insurance information is available through USDA's Risk Management Agency.

More Information

For more information on ARC and PLC, visit the ARC and PLC webpage or contact your local FSA County Office.

About ARC/PLC

Disaster Assistance for 2026 Livestock Forage Losses

Producers in Niobrara County are eligible to apply for 2026 Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) benefits on native and improved pasture.

LFP provides compensation if you suffer grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or cash leased land or fire on federally managed land.

County committees can only accept LFP applications after notification is received by the National Office of qualifying drought or if a federal agency prohibits producers from grazing normal permitted livestock on federally managed lands due to qualifying fire.

The Working Families Tax Cut lowered the threshold for producers to qualify for a one-month payment with payments now triggering after four consecutive weeks of qualifying severe drought (D2 on the U.S. Drought Monitor) conditions instead of eight weeks. And producers may receive a two-month payment if D2 drought conditions continue for seven out of eight consecutive weeks during the normal grazing period. The change is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2026. You must complete a CCC-853 and the required supporting documentation no later than March 1, 2027, for 2026 losses.

For additional information about LFP, including eligible livestock and fire criteria, contact the Niobrara County USDA Service Center at 307-334-2953, Ext. 2 or visit fsa.usda.gov.

About LFP

Top of page

Applying for Beginning Farmer Loans

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) assists beginning farmers to finance agricultural enterprises. Under these designated farm loan programs, FSA can provide financing to eligible applicants through either direct or guaranteed loans. FSA defines a beginning farmer as a person who:

Has operated a farm for not more than 10 years

Will materially and substantially participate in the operation of the farm

Agrees to participate in a loan assessment, borrower training and financial management program sponsored by FSA

Does not own a farm in excess of 30 percent of the county's average size farm.

For more information contact, contact the Platte County USDA Service Center at 307-322-4050 x2 or visit fsa.usda.gov.

About Farm Loans

Top of page

Niobrara County USDA Service Center

905 S Main St

Lusk, WY 82225

Phone: 307-334-2953

FSA - Ext. 2 --- NRCS Ext. 3

Fax: 855-415-3433

Contact your local FSA farm program or farm loan office:

fsa.usda.gov/fsa-office-locator

FARM SERVICE AGENCY NATURAL RESOURCES

PO BOX 720 CONSERVATION SERVICE

LUSK, WY 82225 PO BOX 659

LUSK, WY 82225

County Executive Director

Kimberly Nusbaum District Conservationist

kimberly.nusbaum@usda.gov Clint Anderson

clint.anderson@usda.gov

Program Analysts

Calla Diane

calla.diane@usda.gov

Kelsi Overstreet

kelsi.overstreet@usda.gov

Farm Loan Manager

Rob Weppner

rob.weppner@usda.gov

307-322-4050, Ext. 2

Niobrara FSA County Committee

Carson Wurdeman, Chairman

Kurt Gaukel, Vice Chairman

Ronda Pfister, Member

Next Committee Meeting: TBA