The South Dakota Farm Service Agency recently announced the official closing dates of four county offices in the state as part of a consolidation of 125 offices nationwide.
The Campbell County office will close June 16. All FSA program services will be provided by the Walworth County FSA office unless a producer has elected to transfer his/her records to another county.
The Harding, Jackson and Jerauld county offices will close. Program services will be moved from Harding County to the consolidated Butte/Lawrence county offices; from the Jackson County to the Haakon County office; and from the Jerauld County to the Sanborn County office unless a producer has elected to transfer their records to a different county.
Farm Service Agency Closes Four S.D. offices
The closings have been planned for more than a year and hearings were held in affected counties. On May 29, South Dakota FSA received approval from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to proceed with the consolidation.
"Over the past three years, FSA has faced a variety of budget-related challenges," said Bruce Nelson, FSA administrator in a statement provided by his office. "Through a targeted office consolidation effort that includes 125 offices nationwide, FSA is striving to balance significant budget cuts, staff reductions and increasing workloads while focusing the efforts of our staff on high-quality service. There are 2,119 offices remaining in the FSA network to do just that."
"Although we recognize that change is never easy, we strongly believe that taking this action now is critical to ensuring FSA can continue to serve its customers as it adjusts to budget constraints," said Nelson. "FSA can only achieve the high level of service expected through consolidation of our human, financial and technical resources."
For more information, contact the South Dakota state FSA office at (605) 352-1160.
Source: SD FSA