Now that the majority of crops have been planted, producers need to contact the Butler County Farm Service Agency to complete an acreage report for their farm.

The deadline to report small grains is June 15. The deadline to report corn, soybeans, hay, vegetables, fruit and CRP land is July 17.

Aerial photographs can be requested via mail, and then they can be completed at home and returned by mail or in person to the office.

Once again, this year planting dates are a required entry. It normally takes only around 20 minutes to complete an acreage report for a farm.

Some producers feel more comfortable completing their report at the office while others prefer to do theirs at home.

Either way is acceptable, the important thing is to get it done.

Sometimes a future program depends upon previous years reported crop acres. This is almost a guaranteed certainty with the current farm programs due to expire in 2007.

The current Farm Bill, which authorizes farm programs, could be extended for a year or two — or an entire new Farm Bill could be enacted. That is why it is always a good idea to file an acreage report.

No one can predict what might be coming down the road in the way of farm programs. We have some producers that file an acreage report each year just so documentation is on file of the crops produced for the IRS.

Producers who are participating in current FSA programs are required to report all crop and land uses on cropland acres on their farm. Most participating producers have a system developed that permits timely accurate reports in very few minutes.

For those producers who are unsure of the acres in each field FSA measurement service is available, acres can be measured on the farm using a mobile GPS unit or from the office using 2005 satellite digital imagery.

Contact the office for farm specific rates. If measurement service has been requested prior to the acreage reporting deadline, the measured acreage is considered timely filed even if the actual measurement occurs after the reporting deadline.

Dairy producers participating in the MILCX program are being reminded that it is the producer's responsibility to provide production evidence to FSA.Currently all MILCX benefits have been disbursed that can be issued. Producers who have not yet received a MILCX payment must not have provided production evidence to FSA for a specific month.MILCX rates are as follows:MONTH PAYMENT RATE/CWTOctober 2005.........$0.0000November 2005.........$0.0000December 2005.........$0.0408January 2006.........$0.1054February 2006.........$0.1054March 2006.........$0.4080April 2006.........$0.8389May 2006.........$0.9248June 2006.........$0.9996The rate for July will be announced on June 16, 2006.