A new risk management option will soon be available to fruit and vegetable growers and producers with diversified farms. Whole-Farm Revenue Protection will allow farmers to insure all crops on their farm at once, rather than insuring commodity by commodity. This allows farmers greater flexibility to make planting decisions on their land. The new policy is alsqo designed to meet the risk management needs of diversified crop or livestock producers including those growing specialty crops and/or selling to local and regional markets, farm identity preserved markets, or direct markets. The program will be implemented in counties across the country and will expand in availability over the next several years. Learn more.

Worms in the Pacific Northwest are behind the disappearance of field pesticides used to control voracious slugs that destroy crops. Scientists in the USDA Agricultural Research Service found that worms approach slug bait pellets the same way they approach all other potential food sources, and 20 percent of the time ate it on the spot. Oregon producers currently apply around 10 pounds of slug bait per acre two to five times a year to more than 185,000 acres of grass seed fields. Since much of the bait in pellet form is quickly consumed by worms, researchers believe it might be more cost-effective to apply the more expensive granular and liquid bait, which the worms typically ignore. Read more.

Employees from the FSA Economic and Policy Analysis Staff were honored last week by the USDA Economists Group for their role in providing a strong basis for implementing USDA programs and policies. (Pictured l to r) Karis Gutter, Economist Skip Hyberg, Economist Alex Barbarika, Economist Cathie Feather and Economist Rich Iovanna and Skip Hyberg accepted the John E. Lee Award for Sustained Excellence in Group Economic Analysis. For a decade, these individuals formed a cohesive team that demonstrated an outstanding level of sustained excellence and dedication in providing the best possible conservation analysis to policy makers in various agencies as well as on Capitol Hill.