BULLETIN NO.: MGR-96-037 TO: All Reinsured Companies All Risk Management Field Offices FSA Headquarters, Program Delivery and Field Operations FROM: Kenneth D. Ackerman Acting Administrator SUBJECT: Insuring Grain Sorghum on Failed Wheat Acreage in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma for the 1996 Crop Year Only BACKGROUND: Dry conditions in much of the high plains have resulted in failed wheat acres. Conservation plans for highly erodible land in this area require producers to have plant residue on the soil surface. Producers have indicated they want to be able to leave the failed wheat standing for erosion control and, if they receive moisture, insure any crops planted on failed acreage. Current grain sorghum special provisions in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma state that grain sorghum will not be insurable on non-irrigated acreage, if it is planted following another crop which has reached the heading stage and/or that has been harvested in the same calendar year. Producers with wheat appraising "zero" may be eligible for insurance on subsequent crops, however producers with very low appraisals but greater than "zero" would have to destroy the wheat to insure grain sorghum. The grain sorghum provision addresses the usual effect of soil moisture depletion by a prior crop in low precipitation areas. However, the wheat planted for 1996 in these areas removed little moisture from the soil since it had low germination rates, failed to tiller, and achieved very little vegetative growth. ACTION: Effective for the 1996 crop year, the above grain sorghum special provision statement for counties in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma will be changed to, "Crops will not be insurable on non-irrigated acreage, if they are planted following another crop that has been harvested in the same calender year." In counties where both NFAC and FAC practices are provided, grain sorghum planted on failed wheat acres must be reported as FAC.