At a meeting this week in Washington DC, officials of USDA’s Farm Service Agency confirmed the pending “Interim Final Rule” governing farm program payment limitations and the new adjusted gross income eligibility rules are being treated by USDA as final for the 2009 crop year.

This at least gives producers the certainty that any modifications made to the interim rule in response to public comments will not be effective until 2010.

As a reminder, the Interim Final Rule was published December 29, 2008. The public comment period on the rule is open until January 28, 2009. Further changes in the rule are possible for crop year 2010 and beyond, based on the public comments received by USDA. Therefore, it is advisable for producers to review and comment on anything in the rules, which they view as problematic.

The rule can be viewed by downloading the PDF below.

Interim Final Rule

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