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(Continued from page 18)
• The far southeastern South Dakota church has been served by 20 pastors. Rev. J. J. Nesse was the first resident pastor.
• Church spokesman Glenn Olson tells KCAU-TV (http://bit.ly/18wNbnT) that the celebration is exciting at a time when the changing face of agriculture and population shifts make it difficult for rural churches to survive.
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Crop insurance rule causing confusion for some
BLAKE NICHOLSON,Associated Press
• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Last year's drought has contributed to confusion over crop insurance rules for some Upper Midwest farmers who couldn't get a crop in the ground this past spring due to the opposite weather extreme -- too much moisture.
• Some farmers are worried they won't qualify for insurance payments this year on cropland that was too wet to plant. The government acknowledges the confusion and says it is committed to clearing it up, but federal officials also say some farmers are misinterpreting an informational memo that went out a year ago.
• Members of North Dakota's congressional delegation and farmers in the state -- where the confusion and potential impact appear to be most pronounced -- are urging the federal Agriculture Department's Risk Management Agency to clear up the matter once and for all. Agency Administrator Brandon Willis plans to come to North Dakota sometime in August to meet with producers about the issue, according to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
• "It's been a big concern for our farmers," Hoeven said.
• At issue is a rule affecting whether farmers qualify for "prevented planting" payments -- crop insurance payments for land that is too wet or dry to plant. To prevent fraud, farmers are barred from collecting the payments on land that has experienced prolonged flooding and typically can't support crops.
• After a string of wet years in the Upper Midwest that left potentially productive farmland a soupy mess, officials and farmers in 2011 pushed the Risk Management Agency to ease that provision. The agency implemented a rule effective last year under which farmers in the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota and Iowa can qualify for prevented planting payments on flooded land if they have planted a crop there at least once in the previous four years -- commonly known as the one-in-four rule -- proving the land can be productive.
• Many farmers in North Dakota who couldn't plant this past spring were able to seed a crop in drought-plagued 2012, but they worry that won't count toward meeting the one-in-four rule requirement because of a July 2012 Risk Management (Continued on page 20)
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