PROMO 660 x 440 Agriculture USDA Service Center Update

USDA Update – February 17, 2026

Kiowa/Cheyenne County USDA Service Center Staff

(Kiowa County Press)

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

CRP SIGNUP - Continuous (SAFE Lessor Prairie Chicken and Highly Erodible Land Initiative (HELI) February 12to March 20 is the end of the first batching period.
SDRP - Supplemental Disaster Relief Program – Stage 1 and Stage 2 - application deadline is April 30, 2026
NAP COVERAGE DEADLINE - Coverage for spring planted crops. CCC-471 application for coverage must be completed by March 16, 2026.
CRP PRIMARY NESTING SEASON – March 15^th to July 15^th. No activity can occur on CRP acres (except for Grassland CRP) during this time. No contract management, no managed grazing.

NONINSURED ASSISTANCE PROGRAM DEADLINE

The deadline for purchasing a 2026 NAP policy for spring planted RMA non-insurable crops is Monday, March 16^th. To purchase an application for coverage, the cost is $325.00 per crop, per producer. Producers who qualify as beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged or limited resource the application for coverage fee is waived.

Contact your local FSA office for more information.

CRP CONTINUOUS SIGNUP 65 SIGNUP ANNOUNCED

Eligible producers who are interested in submitting an offer on eligible land into a CRP continuous conservation practice are encouraged to submit to FSA by March 20, 2026. The 2018 Farm Bill required that no more than 27 million cropland acres can be enrolled in CRP, nationwide. Current enrollment in CRP is approximately 26.3 million acres. To ensure the acreage enrolled does not exceed the statutory limitation, submitted CRP offers will be placed into a batch process, with the first batching process ending on March 20, 2026.

Producers with expiring CRP SAFE Lessor Prairie Chicken (SAFE LPC) and Highly Erodible Land Initiative (HELI) contracts will be receiving a letter regarding options for the expiring contract. For land to be offered into SAFE LPC or HELI it must meet certain requirements to be eligible for enrollment.

SAFE LPC, the land must physically lay in a Lessor Prairie Chicken Area
HELI must have an erodibility index number greater than 20.

FSA will determine if the land is eligible and for SAFE LPC, NRCS will determine if the land meets feasibility criteria.

General CRP (Signup 66)

General CRP offers are submitted through a competitive bid process. After the enrollment period closes, General CRP offers are ranked and scored by FSA, using nationally established environmental benefits criteria. USDA will announce accepted offers once ranking and scoring for all offers is completed. In addition to annual rental payments, approved General CRP participants may also be eligible for cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource-conserving vegetative cover.

CRP General Signup will begin March 6, 2026.

Grassland CRP signup dates have not been announced.

More Information

Producers and landowners interested in participating in CRP should contact their local FSA county office

LOGIN.GOV

Producers have been receiving emails or seeing social media posts regarding creating a LOGIN.GOV account. I would encourage all producers to complete the steps for creating an account. Below is more information regarding creating an account and if you have any questions or concerns once creating an account, please contact any FSA office and they can assist you. The upcoming Farmer Bridge Program or FBP application will be available in your Farmers.gov account. By creating a LOGIN.GOV account you’ll have early access to the application.

Conduct Business with FSA Online

For your convenience, FSA is modernizing and expanding our digital services. To conduct business with FSA online, producers will need a Login.gov account.

About Login.gov

Login.gov is the public’s one account for government. Producers can use one account and password for secure, private access to participating government agencies, including FSA.

Creating a Login.gov account is the first step to working with FSA online through the farmers.gov portal.

Visit farmers.gov/account to create your Login.gov account. If you already have a Login.gov account, you can work with FSA using your existing account.

Follow the steps below to create your Login.gov account and tie it to your FSA customer record:

Create your Login.gov Account
Complete Identity Verification
Link your FSA Customer Record

Linking your FSA Customer Record

If you have worked with FSA in the past and have an FSA customer record, the system will attempt to automatically link your Login.gov account to your existing FSA Customer Record and send you directly to the farmers.gov portal.

If you are new to working with USDA, you will need to create an FSA Customer Record. This record is sometimes called a Business Partner ID, BPID, or Business Partner Customer Record. After you verify your identity online, you will be taken to a page to fill out and submit a form to begin that process.