The United States Congress passed the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 on May 22, overriding President Bush's veto. However, its effect on farmers and others locally may not be known for several months.

"Congress has worked to get this legislation passed, and wants to let the public know as soon as possible it has been passed, but it takes time for that to get down through the ranks of the USDA and FSA," said Saline County Farm Service Agency (FSA) Director Jared Singer, explaining the bill will be interpreted by the USDA and FSA officials, who will then write rules and handbooks for local FSA offices to follow.

"We don't go off the actual legislation, we use the handbooks they provide for us," he said.

"What I would want people to know is it is coming, it's on the way," he said.

For now, they are continuing with business as usual and the deadlines they already have in place.

"We'll still need to do our acreage reports, our deadline is July 31 like always," he said, adding that they will need planting dates for each field, along with the crop report. He also added that the planting dates reported to the FSA need to match the report they give to their crop insurance agent.

"We do provide a copy of what that have reported to us with you as you go. They can take to insurance agent to make sure those match up," he said.

As always, farmers are also asked to report their Conservation Reserve Payment (CRP) acres as well to the local office.

Singer said as soon as details on the new legislation are known to their office, they will be letting producers know through local media and newsletters.

"We'll make certain as soon as we get any infomation it is in there and available to folks," he said.

For now, though, Singer said they have to "wait and see."

"What I would want people to know is it is coming, it's on the way," he said.

Whenever sign ups for the new program do open, Singer said they will be doing their best to "make it as pleasant experience as possible for our farmers."

"We're working at the mercy of the legislation and the program we have to implement so we always hope to try to eliminate trips to the office whenever we can for folks, but we'll see what were required to do," he said. "We hope they can be patient with us as we do the best to get this implemented."

The Democrat-News will continue this story tomorrow with general details included in the new "Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008."

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net