USDA’s Risk Management Agency announced Thursday that haying and grazing on prevent planted acres will be allowed on Sept. 1, not Nov. 1 as was previously established. USDA was clear on this being a one-year change.

“We recognize farmers were greatly impacted by some of the unprecedented flooding and excessive rain this spring, and we made this one-year adjustment to help farmers with the tough decisions they are facing this year,” said Bill Northey, USDA’s undersecretary for farm production and conservation.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and a handful of other senators including North Dakota’s John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer  asked USDA to move the date.

In a statement, Thune said the previous Nov. 1 date is “arbitrary, and it sets an inequitable standard that puts some states at a greater advantage than others based simply on their geographical location.”

House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said “the changes announced today by USDA will go a long way toward providing farmers and livestock producers with options to address the forage situation in many parts of the country.”

RMA will also allow chopping for silage, haylage, and baleage under prevented planting provisions; USDA’s Farm Service Agency is extending prevented planting reporting deadlines; and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is holding a special Environmental Quality Incentives Program signup to give cost-share assistance for planting cover crops “on impacted lands.”