USDA’s Farm Service Agency is focused on farm bill implementation and is making progress getting caught up after the government shutdown. FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce says they are nearly back to business as usual, but the shutdown did have an impact on rolling out new farm programs.

He says they had done some preliminary work on farm bill language even before the President signed the bill into law, which is helping.

Fordyce says most of the conservation title remained status quo in the new farm bill with the exception of the CRP program, which will see a 3 million acre increase to 27 million by 2023. So that will require some new rules.

Fordyce says the dairy program is the first to be rolled out and then other risk management and conservation programs will follow.