LOCAL BRIEFS

BAY LAKE - The Garrison Lions will host its Spring Style Show on May 21 at Ruttger's on Bay Lake. The event will begin at 5 p.m., with social hour and dinner at 6 p.m.

The style show will feature new spring styles from Herberger's, Ruttger's Country Store and Royal Expressions located in Baxter. There also will be shopping spree raffles for the three stores as well as a silent auction featuring many hand-crafted items.

Cost for the style show with dinner is $28, with reserved seating and tickets purchased from any Lions member. All proceeds will go toward non-traditional scholarships and other needs in the area.

For more information, call Betty at 678-2141 or Georjann at (320) 692-4439.

USDA Farm Service Agency to meet

The USDA Farm Service Agency will meet at 1:30 p.m. April 7 at The Steak House in Fort Ripley to discuss the new Average Crop Revenue Election program that was part of the last farm bill.

Sign-up for the program is expected to begin soon and is projected to end in conjunction with sign-up for the Direct and Counter Cyclical Program on June 1.

Enrollment is based on farm number, so if a producer has multiple farm numbers, they must decide which farms to put in ACRE and which to leave in DCP. Once the farm is enrolled in ACRE, it is in for the duration of the farm bill (2012).

Farm operators and landlords should put a priority on attending one of the informational meetings to help with the decision-making they will have for their farms.

The meeting will run one to two hours and will be conducted jointly with the Morrison FSA.

For more information for Crow Wing/Cass producers, contact Trisha Koepplin at the FSA at 7118 Clearwater Road in Baxter or call 829-5965. For more information for Aitkin/Itasca producers, contact Trisha Koepplin at the FSA at 130 Southgate Drive in Aitkin or call (218) 927-2912. More information also is available at http://www.fsa.usda.gov.

Office accepting applications

The Natural Resource Conservation Service office is currently accepting applications for the Environmental Quality Improvement Program.

To qualify, you need to be a landowner with at least 10 acres, engaged in livestock or crop production and registered with the Farm Security Administration office.

Examples of practices may include assistance establishing a pasture rotation system, eliminating a pollution problem, establishing windbreaks and erosion control projects.

The NRCS expects the program will be funded the same as in the past.

Call the NRCS office at 829-3272 for more.