Tommy Higgins: 00:06
Anyway, right, so if I…
Colt Knight: 00:07
We don’t usually have to edit anything, but if I say a bad word or say something, you know, on the air, we can cut it down. No. No, I won’t
Tommy Higgins: 00:13
do that. Welcome
Glenda Pereira: 00:21
to the Maine Farmcast. We’ve got a few hosts here today. So, this is Dr. Glenda Pereira, an associate Extension professor of animal science.
Colt Knight: 00:33
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 00:33
No, I need to now recreate that. But we’ve got Dr. Colt Knight, and then we have a special guest. Who’s our other host? That was perfect, Colt.
Colt Knight: 00:45
This is Colton Wesley. He is my son, and he is going to be a year old next month.
Glenda Pereira: 00:52
Yeah. And this is his first feature on the Maine Farmcast. And today we have a really special guest as well. We have Tommy Higgins here with us in the studio in Orono. Tommy’s gonna introduce himself and let us know a little bit more about himself.
Glenda Pereira: 01:11
We’re gonna talk about the Farm Service Agency today, specifically with a focus on County Committees because we have County Committee nominations. So, without further ado, welcome, Tommy, to the Maine Farmcast.
Colt Knight: 01:26
And can I interject?
Glenda Pereira: 01:28
Absolutely. Of course.
Colt Knight: 01:29
We have good news to share about the podcast, Glenda.
Glenda Pereira: 01:33
It’s news to me. The
Colt Knight: 01:37
Maine Farmcast won Best Extension Podcast at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents’ annual meeting this year. So
Glenda Pereira: 01:46
And that was all Colt.
Colt Knight: 01:48
We are a top-ranked educational podcast, and I have a certificate to prove it.
Glenda Pereira: 01:55
Yeah. Do you wanna tell folks which episode?
Colt Knight: 01:58
We submitted the brain episode with Dr. Greg Rentfrow.
Glenda Pereira: 02:02
Bears, Brains, and Twinkies?
Colt Knight: 02:07
Something like that.
Glenda Pereira: 02:08
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Folks should go check that one out, but congratulations.
Tommy Higgins: 02:14
Congratulations.
Glenda Pereira: 02:15
All right. So…
Colt Knight: 02:18
Now that I derailed…
Tommy Higgins: 02:19
Glenda’s train of thought, we’ll get back to the regularly scheduled program.
Glenda Pereira: 02:23
Yes. Well, welcome, Tommy, to the Maine Farmcast as a first-time guest.
Tommy Higgins: 02:26
Well, thank you, Colt, Glenda, and Colton. I appreciate you three having me on here today. Yeah. No problem.
Glenda Pereira: 02:33
So since it’s your first time on the podcast, Tommy, would you mind letting listeners know a little bit more about your role and your background?
Tommy Higgins: 02:43
Sure. I’m the USDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency state executive director. That just means I’m the guy who’s running FSA for the state of Maine.
Glenda Pereira: 02:58
And you are not from away, but you are from away.
Tommy Higgins: 03:02
Well,
Glenda Pereira: 03:04
it’s complicated.
Tommy Higgins: 03:04
So my wife, who was born and raised on a farm in Camden, will tell you that I’m from away. Although my father is from Maine, he was in the military when I was born. So I was born overseas, and then we moved every three years. Then I had a career in the military, three years enlisted and then twenty-two as an officer. I’m a University of Maine Orono graduate and got commissioned through Army ROTC here. And so my wife and I had a career in the military, and I retired back in 2015.
Tommy Higgins: 03:38
And we were living in Omaha, Nebraska, at the time. I was working for the Department of Defense at U.S. Strategic Command. And my wife one day said, I want to move back to Maine. So I said, okay, and we moved back to Maine. And my wife caught me a few times when folks would ask, hey, where are you from?
Tommy Higgins: 03:58
I’d say, well, I’m from Maine. And she said, you’re not from Maine. You can’t say that. And I said, well, where do you want me to say I’m from, based on my background, having grown up all over the place, and my family being from Maine? So I asked why I couldn’t say I was from Maine. And she said, well, I don’t care where you say you’re from.
Tommy Higgins: 04:16
You just can’t say you’re from Maine. And I didn’t realize that Mainers were that possessive about their state, but apparently they are.
Glenda Pereira: 04:22
Yeah. I learned that as well because I’m from away, and Colt’s from away. But the folks in Maine have welcomed us. Still, you’re from away, no matter whether you wanna be or not or however long you’ve lived here. So you mentioned that you moved around some, but you have ties to agriculture, which is potentially how you landed back in this role after your career in the military?
Tommy Higgins: 04:52
Yeah. When we moved back to Maine, I got picked up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and I went to USDA Rural Development. So I was the assistant state director. That position changed, kind of morphed a little bit over the years. I became the deputy state director for USDA Rural Development.
Tommy Higgins: 05:13
So I did that for about ten years, and then I was asked to consider this position. I did, and so I accepted the position, and that’s how I got into FSA. My father grew up on a farm, and my wife grew up on a farm. You know, in between serving overseas and serving in the States, we would always stop off in Maine. I had an uncle in Monmouth who had a chicken farm. He had three of those long, big, three-story buildings.
Tommy Higgins: 05:40
And we used to go help him out on that farm. To this day, I still have that smell of ammonia in my nose. I mean…
Glenda Pereira: 05:51
No, that smell is never gonna leave.
Tommy Higgins: 05:53
So I do have family members who were farmers. I have a pretty in-depth background with Rural Development, where I also learned about FSA.
Glenda Pereira: 06:04
Yeah. And I wanted to note that we’ve covered some introductory information about the Farm Service Agency on a previous episode. So folks can go listen to that. We interviewed Lucia Brown and Amanda May. They were on the podcast last year now.
Glenda Pereira: 06:21
So folks can learn a little bit more about FSA and check that podcast out. I’ll reference it in the show notes. But sort of walk us through what your day-to-day looks like. And I know it’s gonna be very variable, but I’m curious to know what the role of the state executive director entails.
Tommy Higgins: 06:42
Yeah. And so, just to talk real quick about Lucia and Amanda, if I can. If you interviewed them a year ago, I think they’ve both changed positions. Lucia is now my deputy state executive director. She was the farm loan chief.
Tommy Higgins: 06:55
And Amanda is now the program chief, the farm program chief for us here in Maine. So those are two of my star performers, and I’m very, very blessed to have them both with me.
Glenda Pereira: 07:07
They’re fantastic. Yeah. We work and network with them quite frequently.
Tommy Higgins: 07:11
Yeah. Yeah. They’re both awesome. In my day-to-day operations as a state director, unfortunately, I do have to spend some time in the office answering emails and replying to requests for information from my national office, the folks in D.C. who I answer to. But I try to get out as much as I can.
Tommy Higgins: 07:37
I’ve been in the job about a year now, and in that year, I’ve gone out and visited a bunch of farms. I’ve gone to each of my county offices. We have 13 county offices here in Maine, and I’ve been to each one of them.
Tommy Higgins: 08:00
I’ve been to each of my county committee meetings, and I’ve been to quite a few farms. So I think in the year that I’ve been here, I’ve made probably over 50 visits, not just to my offices, but mostly to farmers and their farms. Those are farms owned by state committee members, county committee members, and just folks who access our programs.
Glenda Pereira: 08:29
Yeah. That’s significant because there are a lot of farms in the state of Maine. I don’t have a number in my head, but the ones that you’re visiting are all diversified as well. So most folks hear about livestock farms just because of the nature of Colt’s and my roles.
Glenda Pereira: 08:46
But, yeah, you’re visiting and connecting with all sorts of commodity groups. I wanted to know what is really exciting about Maine farms, or what’s one farm that you’ve visited recently that just stood out to you and kind of, I don’t know, motivates you to continue in this role and to support our farmers in the state of Maine?
Tommy Higgins: 09:15
Well, I don’t wanna pick one farm because I don’t want the other ones that I visited to say, well, why didn’t you pick mine? They all have great things they’re doing. The most recent farm that I visited was just the other day. As a matter of fact, it was yesterday.
Glenda Pereira: 09:35
Sparkplug Farms, I think. John and Sarah.
Tommy Higgins: 09:37
A gentleman, John, has beef, pork, and eggs, and it was interesting just seeing some of the hardware and software that’s out there for farmers now and what he’s using. He doesn’t have to string an electric fence for his cattle, for example. He just has a monitor that they wear around their necks. And he said that in about two or three days, the cattle learn how this thing works, and he can just move them around at certain times through his fields to prevent overgrazing and things like that. They just move right around. The collar beeps, and it moves the cattle back to where they’re supposed to be. And so it’s the technology and the young farmers getting into it that, you know, really do my heart good.
Tommy Higgins: 10:34
And you’ve got other farmers. I went to Green Thumb Farms. I believe that was Jim Petro’s farm, and he just uses a lot of technology. You know, he showed me on his iPhone kind of how he can look at his crops. He’s a potato farmer. He can look at his crops through his iPhone. He used to use satellites, and now he uses drones, and they just kind of pick out which parts of his crops need to be watered, for example, and where he’s having problems.
Tommy Higgins: 11:09
If I remember correctly, he can figure out insect infestations based on certain things. So just the technology that farmers are using nowadays is amazing to me. It’s nice to see Maine farmers doing things like that. But I gotta tell you, every farm that I’ve been to, even if they had the same commodity, did things a little differently or had something a little different. You know, if it’s up in the County and we’re talking about potatoes, there are different types of storage facilities and different ways people use things, do things, and rotate things.
Tommy Higgins: 11:48
It’s just fascinating to me. But I definitely don’t wanna point any one individual out. Right. Right. I take something away from each farm I visit.
Glenda Pereira: 11:57
Absolutely. And similar to us in Extension, we collaborate and work with all farms, and, you know, they’re all unique in their management practices. And it’s just really exciting to get to interact with them. I always learn from the farmers. I always say that sometimes, you know, farmers call me for advice, but really, they’re the ones who sometimes give me more advice because I learn from them, and they really add to my knowledge bank each time I get to interact with the farmers I work with.
Glenda Pereira: 12:29
And that’s something you mentioned about learning about the technology, excuse me, that both, I think, farms you visited, both named John, had mentioned. So, shout-out to Sparkplug Farms, John and Sarah. I’ve worked with them, and they’ve consulted with us here in Extension, and you can check them out. And, yeah, it’s really exciting to see the virtual fencing for their animals take off because they also do some winter baleage. So they put bales in their fields, and they do some of that rotation.
Glenda Pereira: 13:03
And so they might even be able to benefit from that virtual fencing in the winter as well. Something that I kind of think we’re naturally going into is the programs we have here in the state of Maine that are offered through FSA to the farmers. Would you potentially just give us sort of, you know, the 30,000-foot view of FSA programs that farmers can enroll in? And then, before we head there, too, just how can folks really get connected with FSA? What’s the easiest way for them to learn?
Glenda Pereira: 13:37
You know, I know online is a really good platform, but it’s likely their county office. Is that correct?
Tommy Higgins: 13:44
Yeah, we have 13 county offices and, obviously, 16 counties here in Maine. Each office is headed up by a county executive director. But the county executive director actually works for something called the county committee, the county executive committee, or the county office committee. And so these are Maine farmers from different commodities who have either accessed our programs or participate in a program. That means they may be signed up for a program like Dairy Margin Coverage or something like that. And then we also have folks who cooperate with FSA programs. That just means that they have something with us, like maybe acreage reporting.
Tommy Higgins: 14:31
So they just report the amount of acres they have, but they don’t actually participate in any programs. I would recommend that any farmer at least file an acreage report with us because that allows them to basically access the entire suite of our programs, from regular programs to disaster programs. And even if you don’t want a loan or anything like that, you can get reimbursed for things like crop loss or livestock loss. And the best way to do that is just reach out and go to our county office. And if you’re curious about, hey, what do you guys have?
Tommy Higgins: 15:16
What does it mean if I just participate? Or what does it mean if I cooperate? What do you need from me in terms of acreage reporting, and what does that do for me? Our county executive directors and staff are full-time employees. The county committees are there part-time for specific things, but the full-time staff are there, and they’re my employees. They will walk you through whatever you have questions about.
Tommy Higgins: 15:48
Or you can call them, and they’ll be happy to speak with you about your particular situation. If you have some issues and you think, well, I’m not signed up or I’m not participating with FSA, so I’m not going to reach out to them, go ahead and reach out to us anyway. We can do what’s called late-filed acreage reporting in some cases, and we can get you signed up. And even if you think it’s too late or you think it’s not worth it because you’re not with us, just call. Talk to our folks, and, you know, we’ll help you figure out whether it’s the right move for you or not.
Glenda Pereira: 16:31
Yeah. But I guess I recommend even signing up for that acreage reporting because you might not wanna enroll in a program. So, like the Dairy Margin Coverage program, for example, you have to enroll in it every year. By reporting your acreage, your information is already in the system, which means you can enroll, maybe not this year, but next year. It makes it so the paperwork is sort of done. And then if you’re like, I wanna opt in because there’s a short deadline.
Glenda Pereira: 17:00
I believe it starts, is it November 2? And I think the dates change for when you can enroll in Dairy Margin Coverage, but you have that set time. Maybe you’re on the fence about whether you’re gonna enroll or not, but you wanna enroll, like, the day before because, you know, you’ve looked at the forecasted milk pricing. So having the information there already sort of saves you some of that time, allowing you to enroll in a program. So I recommend that if folks are thinking about future FSA programs, they reach out and get signed up. And if all they’re doing is acreage reporting, that means next year maybe they’re gonna enroll in a program.
Glenda Pereira: 17:35
And I know you were gonna mention some of the most frequently used programs that farmers in the state of Maine, and even nationwide, enroll in.
Tommy Higgins: 17:47
Yeah. And every program’s enrollment period may be a little different. And they may, like you said, change from year to year. Generally, Dairy Margin Coverage is from January to February, but that could change.
Glenda Pereira: 17:58
And
Tommy Higgins: 17:58
it may change from year to year. And the specific dates may change. But some of them, I mean, we’ve got a whole bunch of programs. And if you go to our website, you just, you know, in Google, type in USDA FSA, and it’ll show you the entire suite of programs. And there are a lot.
Tommy Higgins: 18:16
But the ones that get a lot of use in Maine are ARC/PLC, which is Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage. For ARC, payments are triggered when the revenue goes below the guaranteed level. For the Price Loss Coverage part of that, payments are triggered when the marketing year average falls below the effective reference price. And our staff can explain that in greater detail and go over what that means and how it works. For Dairy Margin Coverage, it’s a payment when the margin between the all-milk price and the average feed cost falls below the chosen coverage.
Tommy Higgins: 18:57
So if you participate in DMC, you can pick what your coverage is. And I think $9.50 is the highest one right now. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 19:09
I think there’s a nice table on the website as well. There is. Yes. That highlights the different tiers. Absolutely. Yeah.
Tommy Higgins: 19:16
And on the website, each one of these programs has a fact sheet, and they have all of the information, you know, kind of categorized in an easy-to-digest way. So, yeah, you can definitely access that. But if, you know, you’re reading it and you still have some questions, call one of my
Glenda Pereira: 19:32
folks. Right.
Tommy Higgins: 19:33
We will definitely help out. Another one that’s used a lot right now in Maine is FSFL, Farm Storage Facility Loan. So you can build or upgrade permanent and portable storage facilities and equipment with that one. And, you know, well, does that mean a refrigerated truck? Or does that mean, you know, it doesn’t have to be a fixed facility? Is it a trailer?
Tommy Higgins: 19:55
How big is it? What are the details? My staff can work through those details with you if that’s what you’re interested in. And then, so that’s on the farm program side. On the farm loan side, the two big winners in Maine are obviously the farm operating loans and the farm ownership loans. And those allow you to do different things with the money.
Tommy Higgins: 20:13
Just because you’re taking one doesn’t mean you can’t take the other. But we have really attractive interest rates. I think, you know, we’re very competitive. We’re not allowed to be in competition with the banks. So that’s not what it’s about.
Tommy Higgins: 20:29
But it’s about helping farmers who might not otherwise be able to be helped.
Glenda Pereira: 20:33
Right. And I think a couple of farmers that I’ve been working with sort of work with different agencies, too, because they have a project where they’re expanding, potentially building a new building. And so, you know, there are different programs in the state of Maine specifically where they can borrow money. And so they might wanna, you know, reach out to FSA or reach out to, for example, the Maine Department of Ag.
Glenda Pereira: 21:00
There are a couple of potential ways that they can get loans to support their project needs.
Tommy Higgins: 21:07
Farm Credit East is one of…
Glenda Pereira: 21:09
Farm Credit East as well, certainly. Yeah.
Tommy Higgins: 21:12
And then we have, so those are kind of some of the commonly used recurring programs. We also have, you know, situationally dependent or temporary programs. Like the one we just recently had. It used to be called the One Big Beautiful Bill. I think they’re now calling it the Workforce, yeah, I don’t recall the acronym, but it’s the WFTCA, which basically allowed for the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program. That’s $12,000,000,000 that basically offset the elevated input costs and market disruptions and allowed those differences to be paid to producers. The interesting thing, and what Maine has really benefited from, is kind of the carve-out from that.
Tommy Higgins: 22:07
There’s a $1,600,000,000 carve-out for assistance to specialty crop farmers. And those farmers have been applying for that since it opened. It’s gonna remain open until August 7. And to date, we have paid Maine farmers $13,000,000 through that program. But that’s a program that’s kind of just bridging the gap between when the new programs are gonna kick in and the end of the old program.
Tommy Higgins: 22:37
Because, you know, when administrations change, those programs kind of change.
Glenda Pereira: 22:40
So
Tommy Higgins: 22:42
that Farm Bridge Assistance Program is something this administration decided to put out there for farmers, and it’s really benefited Maine farmers.
Glenda Pereira: 22:51
Yeah. And so that’s open through August 7, you mentioned.
Tommy Higgins: 22:55
The applications are open until August 7. But payments have already been made to some of the early applicants. We’ve still got applicants out there, and we’ve still got some applications on file. But the payments made so far in Maine total about $13,000,000.
Glenda Pereira: 23:10
Right. Right. Awesome. Thank you. We’ll definitely put in the show notes where folks can learn more about this.
Glenda Pereira: 23:18
And if they haven’t looked it up, I definitely recommend that they look. Because I know input costs, especially in the state of Maine, are high, as we tend to have most things transported here, you know, imported into our state. Like, I think about fertilizer costs this past spring. Those were exceptionally high, and fuel as well. Absolutely.
Glenda Pereira: 23:39
For the planting season, folks can look more into that. So part of the goal of our podcast today was to talk about county committees, and you already talked some about them. I was curious about this because I’m a novice in learning about everything that goes on within the respective agencies that we collaborate with. So paint us sort of an organizational tree, I guess. At the top, we have our state office and then county offices. And then we have state and county committees.
Tommy Higgins: 24:18
Yes.
Glenda Pereira: 24:18
So our state committee is comprised of?
Tommy Higgins: 24:24
Five producers throughout the state. We try to have geographic diversity. So we have folks from northern Maine to southern Maine. Yep. And we also try to have a range of commodities.
Tommy Higgins: 24:41
So we have potato farmers, a vegetable farmer, a blueberry farmer, and a cattle farmer. We have a dairy farmer. So we have a little bit of everything. And that’s the same thing that the county committees try to do within their geographical areas. So the counties have local administrative areas.
Tommy Higgins: 25:04
And these are just areas that we have in FSA based on how we carve up a particular county. And those local administrative areas are each represented by a county committee member. And so county committee members and state committee members are a little different in, obviously, what they cover and what they do. That’s how it works at the county level. We have those committee members who are representing that LAA, local administrative area.
Glenda Pereira: 25:38
Yep. And you had mentioned, so the members on the county committee are predominantly farmers and potentially ag service providers? Or who can participate in a county committee?
Tommy Higgins: 25:52
Yeah. So right now, it’s basically producers. It’s farmers. If you have a vested interest in farming, you could try to be on the committee, and, you know, somebody could nominate you or you can nominate yourself through our process. But you would still have to stand for election.
Tommy Higgins: 26:19
And, you know, if there’s a farmer and there’s somebody else who’s got an interest in ag but is not a farmer, the farmers will decide who they’re gonna pick.
Glenda Pereira: 26:32
Yep. And remind me, this is a three-year term to serve on the County Committee, right? It’s…
Tommy Higgins: 26:38
Yes. For a County Committee member, it’s a three-year term. And you can, as a County Committee member, serve three consecutive three-year terms. And then you basically term out. Then you have to sit out at least one three-year term, and if you want to, you can reapply. Your clock starts over, so to speak, and then you can serve another three three-year terms for nine years.
Tommy Higgins: 27:06
And we’ve had folks do that because, unfortunately, in some counties, we don’t have enough interest. And, you know, you have a farmer who does have interest and does provide a great service to his constituents as a committee member. And he or she will be willing to do that. They may run again.
Glenda Pereira: 27:25
Yeah. And would you give us some insight about what that time commitment looks like? Are there monthly meetings? And we’re gonna talk about the role of the county committee because I think that’s certainly important as well. But what’s sort of the time commitment on an annual basis?
Tommy Higgins: 27:44
The answer is, it depends. It depends on a couple of things. It depends on the county, and it depends on what their crop is and when the busy time of the season is. Like potato farmers, for example, I mean, September is a very busy month for them.
Glenda Pereira: 28:01
Right. So
Tommy Higgins: 28:02
some committees try to meet monthly, and some meet quarterly, and then some are in between. So basically, some may decide that they want to meet, and the committee members decide this.
Glenda Pereira: 28:18
Right. Yeah.
Tommy Higgins: 28:19
And so some committee members may say, hey, well, let’s shoot for a monthly meeting, but if we can’t meet, then we’ll just call that one off. And they do that via email. And so even if a county committee meets monthly, they may not meet every month. And the same thing for quarterly meetings. They may decide to call an additional meeting for some particular work that needs to be done, and that may be the case.
Tommy Higgins: 28:45
So, yeah, there’s no quick answer to that question. It just really depends on the committee, where it’s located, the commodities that they have, and, you know, it depends on them personally. I mean, some committee members are able to do certain things that other committee members are not. So they’re gonna, you know, default to whatever works for all of them together.
Glenda Pereira: 29:07
Yeah. But something that’s important to highlight, too, is that the committee is then sort of mentioning what their needs are. And one of the important tasks and responsibilities of this committee is to discuss how programs may be delivered, the timing, and any types of disaster recovery and price support programs. And you can elaborate more on that, but that’s their primary role and responsibility. And obviously, I’m assuming, voicing the needs depending on the season.
Glenda Pereira: 29:42
Every state’s gonna be different, reflecting what its climate and weather patterns have been that year and, of course, the type of market that we’re in and what they’re producing.
Tommy Higgins: 29:53
Yeah. Well, you hit the nail right on the head, Glenda. I mean, with what you’re saying, you know, they really make decisions that basically help all the farmers in their county or in their local administrative area. You know, in addition, they serve as outreach people who can explain to farmers in their jurisdiction what FSA can do for them, what we have for programs, what we have for loans, and the types of things that we can offer farmers. So that’s part of it.
Tommy Higgins: 30:30
But in the meetings, a big part of it is making decisions on some things. For example, producer appeals. If a producer is applying for something and they didn’t, for example, meet the deadline, the producer can appeal and say, hey, here’s the reason why I missed the deadline. And the committee can look at that and say, well, he missed this deadline through no fault of his own, and it could be something FSA didn’t do correctly.
Glenda Pereira: 31:07
And
Tommy Higgins: 31:08
so the committees will basically rule on that and say, we’re approving his appeal. So then his packet, or whatever the case may be, is approved. Yeah. Whereas otherwise, it might not be. So committee members look at that.
Tommy Higgins: 31:25
They look at appeals. They look at commodity programs when farmers in that particular county are applying for them. They look at conservation programs and disaster programs. They are also responsible for hiring the CEDs, the county executive directors, and I can go into a little more detail about that. So folks who apply for disaster programs or any of our programs, whether they’re conservation or commodity, the county committee members look at all of that and weigh in on it.
Tommy Higgins: 32:01
In some cases, they approve it. In some cases, they recommend it for approval because, depending on what it is, it may have to go to the national office or the state committee, for example. But they’ll recommend approval. Interestingly, all of the county executive directors actually work for the county committees. And it’s the county committees that actually hire the CEDs.
Tommy Higgins: 32:26
And that’s a process they carry out with help from my permanent staff. You know, they’ll interview a number of applicants for a CED vacancy, and it’ll be the committee members who decide who they hire. And I think that’s a wonderful way for farmers and producers to have a voice, not just in what’s going on in their county, but in the entire FSA process. And I know our secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins, is a big supporter of that. I mean, she dealt with FSA while growing up on a farm, you know.
Tommy Higgins: 33:06
I mean, she started out, you know, with Future Farmers of America and 4-H, but she’s also accessed USDA FSA programs. So she understands how it works, and she’s a big supporter of the system that we have, which allows local producers and local farmers to have as strong a voice as they have in the process. Right.
Glenda Pereira: 33:29
Because I was gonna mention, you know, there are needs in the county, and they discuss those at the county level, but then they could be elevated to the state, and then they could be elevated to the national level. And so that’s sort of, I guess, the chain of operations in which farmers can voice their needs for programming from FSA. And then, you know, Maine’s not alone in the needs that it has, and maybe other states and regions of the country can benefit from this one need that was, you know, discovered here in Maine and elevated to the national office. So I agree that I think this service plays a really important role in making sure farmers have a voice in what their program needs are. And I’m curious, how can folks learn more, or how can farmers learn more, about how to participate in these county committees?
Glenda Pereira: 34:20
And then even if they’re interested in the state committee, I know we’re not currently running elections for state committees, but we are in the process of having nominations for county committees, which run through August 3, if that’s correct? Yeah. How do folks vote and participate in the county committee process?
Tommy Higgins: 34:41
Yeah. So the state committee works a little differently. Yeah. But for the county committees, again, a person who wants to participate in either the nomination process or the election process has to be either participating or cooperating in an FSA program. So they, as I mentioned earlier, have to be the recipient of or be signed up for one of our programs.
Tommy Higgins: 35:09
It could be Dairy Margin Coverage. It could be ARC/PLC. It could be ELRP. I mean, it could be any of our programs. We’ve got a bunch of them.
Tommy Higgins: 35:18
Or they have to be cooperating, and what that means is that they have to be registered with us for something like, not Dairy Margin Coverage, but agricultural acreage reporting.
Glenda Pereira: 35:33
Right.
Tommy Higgins: 35:34
So if you’re reporting your acreage to us, all you’re doing is saying, I have this many acres, and I’m doing this with them, and then that’s it. That’s enough to allow you to participate.
Glenda Pereira: 35:45
And vote.
Tommy Higgins: 35:46
And vote. Yeah. And nominate and be nominated to be a member of a county committee. So the nomination period, as you mentioned, is ongoing now. It began on June 15.
Tommy Higgins: 36:01
It goes through August 3. August 3 is the last day to file a nomination. Then we process all of that, and around early November is when we’re gonna mail ballots out to eligible voters. The eligible voters are the same people. They either participate or cooperate in an FSA program, and those go out, like I said, in early November.
Tommy Higgins: 36:29
And then folks can vote. We have to receive all the ballots by December 7, which is the last day to return them. Now, if something is postmarked December 7 and we don’t get it until December 9, that’s okay. We’re not gonna start counting the votes until a reasonable time beyond December 7. And then on January 1, the new County Committee members take office.
Tommy Higgins: 36:58
And so, for example, in Maine, depending on the size of a county committee and whether it’s representing two counties or one county, it may have three members or five members. Nationally, they can go up to 11 members because there’s some big stuff going on. Yeah. You know, in Texas and California, Nebraska, Iowa, and places like that. But in Maine, the largest number we have is five. So, for example, if we have, well, let’s just say we have a committee with three folks.
Tommy Higgins: 37:31
The election cycle will be different for each one of those three so that, at any given time, a new county committee member will be coming on, but two of the existing members
Glenda Pereira: 37:41
Will stay on.
Tommy Higgins: 37:41
Will stay.
Glenda Pereira: 37:43
Have that continuity.
Tommy Higgins: 37:44
Yeah. And it’ll happen like that every year. Unless it’s a number like five, we’ll try not to have more than one new member at a time. But everybody’s on a three-year
Glenda Pereira: 37:57
Term.
Tommy Higgins: 37:58
Term. So they, you know, have to go up for election at some point.
Glenda Pereira: 38:02
Right. Right. Well, that’s great. I think I always use the podcast as a way to learn, and I learned a lot today. Colt’s been quiet, and I don’t know if you had any more questions, but I learned quite a bit. You’ve been quiet
Colt Knight: 38:16
for a reason because the baby smashed his head into the microphone and started crying. So I put my microphone on mute, and then I had to console the baby for a little bit. Now we’re watching Baby Shark over here on the cell phone.
Glenda Pereira: 38:26
But, Colt, you have a farm, and I am curious: are you signed up for the acreage program at all and involved in FSA?
Colt Knight: 38:35
I am signed up for FSA, but I have not used any of their services as of yet.
Glenda Pereira: 38:40
Yeah. In the future, potentially. Did you have any questions, Colt? Because I know that even though Colt is quiet now, he’s watching Baby Shark.
Colt Knight: 38:51
Yeah. No, we’re doing good. But, you know, if other folks have questions, comments, or concerns, or if they’re interested in podcast daycare, they can send us an email.
Glenda Pereira: 39:11
And thank you, Tommy. I don’t know if you had anything else you wanted to mention, but it was wonderful to learn from you and have you on the Maine Farmcast.
Tommy Higgins: 39:18
I had a wonderful time. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate what you do, Colt. Thank you so much for having me.
Colt Knight: 39:29
Yeah. Thank you. We have a postscript for the first time in our podcast history because we thought of some important programs that FSA offers that we thought should be announced to the public.
Glenda Pereira: 39:47
Let us know what those programs are, Tommy.
Tommy Higgins: 39:50
Sure. So we talked about the regular programs, but we also have some disaster programs. And a fair number of Mainers have already been using some of these programs. They cover, you know, kind of three big bins. One is livestock, the other is crops, and then we have a program for wells.
Tommy Higgins: 40:12
And that was especially important last year when we kind of went through the drought. So we have something called ELAP, and we love our acronyms in the federal government. So ELAP is emergency…
Colt Knight: 40:23
Assistance. Keeping track, I think that is number 57 that we’ve mentioned today.
Tommy Higgins: 40:30
ELAP is Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish. And what that one does is provide financial aid for disease, weather, feed or water shortages, or any of those types of problems you have with livestock. And if you’re a beekeeper, if you’re experiencing hive colony collapse disorder or having problems with your hive, the honey bee portion of that will cover that. We have LFP, Livestock Forage Program, which covers grazing losses from fire and drought, which a fair number of farmers used this past year because we had drought conditions. And, you know, real quick, the drought conditions are given to us by the Drought Monitor.
Tommy Higgins: 41:15
So anytime we go into D2, drought condition two, and we’re there for eight weeks or longer, these programs kick in, and farmers become eligible. Anytime we go into D3, drought condition three, it’s automatic. So a farmer can go in right away and then, you know, list what their losses are and be covered. We have the Livestock Indemnity Program, which basically covers livestock losses from weather, disease, and attacks by any federally protected animal. So wolves, for example. I don’t know that we have a wolf problem here in Maine, but those are the types of things that it covers.
Tommy Higgins: 41:52
Then we have the Emergency Conservation Program, also known as ECP, and that restores farmland after any flood, fire, or drought conditions. We have the Tree Assistance Program, TAP, and that covers losses due to natural disasters, including things like apple trees, Christmas trees, or any of those other tree industries that we have here in Maine. And then we have NAP, the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which covers destroyed crops or the inability to plant. And that covers, you know, a lot of things like vegetables, fruits, floriculture, aquaculture, maple sap, and a lot of things that we have here in Maine. So if you have a crop that is not insurable in any other way and you are with FSA, NAP will, in many cases, take care of that for you.
Tommy Higgins: 42:45
And so that’s not our entire suite of disaster programs, but those are some of the ones that farmers here have used recently, and I just wanted to make sure folks understood what that was. And again, if you’re not sure, hey, what does this mean and what does that mean? You can either check our website or just call one of our offices, and our folks will be very happy to talk to you about how to get, you know, signed up for this stuff.
Glenda Pereira: 43:11
Yeah. I’m glad we had a chance to cover this. And luckily, it rained yesterday. Yay. Rain dance.
Glenda Pereira: 43:18
Yes. Because it was crispy out there for our crops. I was afraid we were gonna be in a drought, but I’m glad we got some rain. But nonetheless, folks can check out those programs, learn more, and sign up if they need to.
Tommy Higgins: 43:36
Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much, guys.
Colt Knight: 43:41
Yep. Thanks for having me and Glenda.
Glenda Pereira: 43:44
See you next time.
Colt Knight: 43:45
Do you wanna kick off our outro again?
Glenda Pereira: 43:48
Sure. If folks have questions, comments, or future topic suggestions, they can email us at extension.farmcast@maine.edu.
Colt Knight: 43:58
Cue the bumper music.
Tommy Higgins: 44:09
But I think you might want to kind of splice it in a way that makes more logical sense. Whatever works for you. I’m okay if you need to
Colt Knight: 44:15
do that. We are free-flowing here. Okay?
Glenda Pereira: 44:19
We are very informal.
Tommy Higgins: 44:21
And do you want me to keep things short? Like, if you ask me about my background, I can go on a long time about my background.
Colt Knight: 44:26
Oh, you can just say whatever you want, and we can redirect here. Okay.