Welcome to the February 21, 2025 issue of Cotton News, a service provided by Plains Cotton Growers Inc. for the cotton industry in the Texas High Plains and beyond.
Floyd County Producer Dane Sanders, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and PCG CEO Kody Bessent.
House Republicans Advocate for Strong Farm Policy in 2025
This week Plains Cotton Growers met with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Rep. Jake Ellzey Sr. (R-TX) at different events to learn how farm policy is shaping up in 2025.
“My goal is to have a farm bill done in the first half of this year,” Thompson said. “This farm bill is so important and we’ve got to invest in our farmers and increase their safety net.”
We appreciate the ag champions we have in Congress and look forward to working with them this year to enact strong farm policy for producers.
PCG Vice President and Lamb County Producer Brent Coker and Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX).
ARC/PLC Decision Aid Updated for 2025
The Texas A&M University Agricultural Food and Policy Center developed a decision making tool in 2018 to provide producers with potential USDA-FSA program outcomes alongside federal crop insurance coverage options. This tool has been updated to help producers make their farm program elections and enrollments in 2025.
Any changes to insurance policy selections through the federal crop insurance program must be made by the sales closing date for the Texas High Plains region, which is March 15. FSA Farm Program elections (like the Agricultural Risk Coverage and Price Lose Coverage programs) need to be turned in to your local FSA office by April 15.
Since these deadlines are 30 days apart this year, the USDA Risk Management Agency determined that growers who include either SCO or STAX as part of their 2025 insurance coverage at sales closing will be considered eligible to purchase these products based on enrollment selections they make at FSA as of April 15.
For example:
- If you decide to purchase STAX on March 15, then enroll in the Price Loss Coverage Program or the Agricultural Risk Coverage Program on April 15, the USDA Risk Management Agency will ignore your STAX selection and not attach it to your policy.
- If you decide to purchase SCO on March 15, then enroll in the Price Loss Coverage Program on April 15, RMA will attach SCO to your insurance coverage. However, if you elect ARC, RMA will not attach your SCO coverage selection to your policy.
Announcements
New BOI Reporting Deadline
FINCEN has updated the BOI reporting deadline to March 21, 2025.
EQUIP Funds Released by USDA
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced yesterday (February 20, 2025) that USDA will honor contracts that were already made directly to farmers. Specifically, USDA is releasing approximately $20 billion in contracts for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
New PCG Cotton News Series: Cotton Friendly Stores
You may have seen images of cotton apparel at select stores in Lubbock, Texas, on PCG’s social media channels. This will become a featured series in this newsletter where we will highlight stores that promote cotton clothing and keep a high level of cotton inventory. The goal is to walk in a store and see that it would be harder to NOT purchase cotton when shopping!
While we are headquartered in Lubbock, we hope to promote stores that are throughout the Texas High Plains. If you know of a cotton friendly store in your area, please send the information to Kara Bishop or call the office: 806-792-4904. Let’s all support the cotton industry together!
In Case You Missed It
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Do Major U.S. Ag Trading Partners Apply Tariff Reciprocity?
Lubbock Classing Office Report
(last weekly update for the season – season total = 1,980,818)