News Release Distributed 10/03/14
BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter and U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency will host 13 educational meetings in October and November to help Louisiana farmers prepare for changes in the new farm bill. The meetings will be conducted by Louisiana FSA personnel along with AgCenter economists Mike Salassi, Kurt Guidry and Michael Deliberto.
Presentations will include information on projected economic outcomes and evaluation of farm bill decision options given current and projected commodity market prices as well as current crop yields in Louisiana, Salassi said.
The Agricultural Act of 2014 changes the way support payments are calculated. The law ends direct payment subsidies, so farmers must now choose between two income support programs — agriculture risk coverage (ARC) and price loss coverage (PLC).The deadline for signing up for the 2014 crop will be sometime in early 2015.
Dates and locations of the farm program crop meetings are as follows:
—Oct. 15, 8 a.m., Acadia Parish Extension Office, 157 Cherokee Drive, Crowley
—Oct. 15, 2 p.m., Welsh Community Center, 201 St. Elms St., Welsh
—Oct. 16, 2 p.m., Envie, 207 East Bayou Road, Thibodaux
—Oct. 27, 8 a.m., Opelousas Civic Center, 1638 Creswell Lane Extension, Suite 2, Opelousas
—Oct. 28, 8 a.m., West Baton Rouge Conference Center, 2750 North Westport Drive, Port Allen
—Oct. 30, 8 a.m., Avoyelles Parish Extension Office, 8592 Highway 1, Mansura
—Oct. 30, 2 p.m., State Evacuation Shelter, 8125 Highway 71 South, Alexandria
—Oct. 31, 8 a.m., Arts Center, 116 Second St., Natchitoches
—Nov. 3, 2 p.m., Bayou Vista Community Center, 1333 Belleview St., Bayou Vista
—Nov. 5, 8 a.m., River of Life Church, 127 Ellis Lane, Winnsboro
—Nov. 5, 2 p.m., Rayville Civic Center, 827 Louisa St., Rayville
—Nov. 6, 8 a.m., Lingo Center, 10284 Highway 17, Oak Grove
—Nov. 7, 8 a.m., Caddo Parish Extension Office, 2408 East 70th St., Shreveport
For more information, contact Salassi at MSalassi@agcenter.lsu.edu or 225-578-2713.
Olivia McClure