This is the Farm Gal Community Letter, the weekly newsletter for Wisconsin Land & Farm News. Every week I gather the FSA and NRCS deadlines, the cattle and crop market news, hunting and habitat notes, rural events, and the practical land knowledge that matter to people who own, farm, hunt, buy, or sell rural ground across West Central Wisconsin. This week we step into September, and there is a lot to get on the calendar.
The combines are starting to roll in the southern counties, corn is denting across the region, the September 1 hunting openers are behind us, and the archery opener is ten days out. I cover Eau Claire, Dunn, Trempealeau, Chippewa, Buffalo, Jackson, and Clark counties first, then the rest of Wisconsin as the story calls for it. Plain talk, local names, and real dates.
FSA and NRCS Deadlines on the September Calendar
September 30 is the acreage reporting deadline at your county Farm Service Agency office. If you planted anything this year, crop or fall-seeded small grain, get your acreage report in early. It is also the September 30 closing date for the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for fall-seeded small grains, forage crops, garlic, and a few other value-loss crops. Do not leave this for the last week of the month; the office line gets long.
NRCS EQIP has a September 18 apply-by date in Wisconsin. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program cost-shares conservation practices like fencing, livestock water systems, cover crops, and manure and grazing infrastructure. If you have a practice in mind, get an application on file by September 18. Applications that miss the window wait for the next funding cycle, and that is a long time to sit on a project you wanted this winter.
The ARC/PLC base allocation summary review window closed August 31. If you did not get yours reviewed, call your county office and find out where you stand before the election deadlines move on. The base review is the step people skip, and it is the step that sets up everything else.
And a reminder for livestock producers on dry pasture: LFP, the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, covers up to 60 percent of replacement feed cost when a qualifying drought hits grazing land, and you have 30 days after the end of the qualifying period to file. If your county shows up on the drought monitor, a call to your FSA office this week is worth the time.
Cattle Markets Pull Back as Weaning Nears
Feeder cattle have given up ground this week. Feeder cattle futures settled near $318 per hundredweight on September 1, down about 8.5 percent over the past month and roughly 12.6 percent below a year ago. In the upper Midwest cash market, 600 to 650 pound feeder steers were trading around $383 to $410 per hundredweight, and 860 to 880 pound steers around $319 to $332.
That is a real pullback from a strong spring and early summer, even though prices still sit well above where they were last fall. For cow-calf operators in Dunn, Polk, St. Croix, and Clark counties, the message is the one I keep repeating: fall weaning is right around the corner, and the calves that hit the special fall feeder sales with a full preconditioning program are the ones drawing the top dollar at the scale. The vaccine and the feed bill you pay now are what show up as a premium in October.
Corn Denting, Silage Timing, and a Dry Stretch to Watch
Corn is denting across West Central Wisconsin, and corn silage harvest is starting to ramp up in the southern part of the region, with the rest of the state following over the next couple of weeks. If you chop silage, start checking moisture now. In a dry stretch the harvest window narrows fast, and good silage starts with timing.
Soybeans are finishing pod set and beginning to color across the region. The dry spots in parts of western Wisconsin have livestock producers watching pasture and hay supplies. If you have been short on moisture, it is worth the call to your county FSA office about LFP, and a hard, honest look at how much feed you have on hand before the snow flies. Better to know now than to scramble in January.
Hunting and Habitat: Openers Are Here
September 1 opened the early teal season (through September 9), the early Canada goose season (through September 15), mourning dove (through November 29), and squirrel. Then the big one: archery and crossbow deer season opens September 12, and fall turkey opens the same day. That is ten days from today.
This is the week to hang stands, trim shooting lanes, and pull trail camera cards before the leaves thin. If you are scouting a new hunting property, the deer are on a predictable early-fall pattern right now: feeding on standing corn and the last of the clover, bedding in the thickest cover they can find. Read where those two come together and you know where to sit opening weekend.
Teal and early goose hunters should be on the water and in the fields this week. The managed flowages and the wheat stubble fields in the western counties are drawing birds right now, and once the corn comes off, the birds will shift with it. If you have permission locked in, use it this week while the pattern holds.
Rural Community Events on the Calendar
Labor Day weekend is behind us, but the community calendar stays full across the Chippewa Valley.
- The inaugural Chippewa Falls BBQ Fest runs Saturday, September 6 at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds.
- Burger Night on the Farm at Together Farms in Mondovi is Wednesday, September 9, right in the Dunn and Buffalo county border country.
- The Downtown Eau Claire Fall Festival lands Saturday, September 12, the same weekend archery opens.
These are the kind of events where you see the community whole: neighbors, farmers, hunters, and folks new to the country all in one place. If you are thinking about moving to rural Wisconsin, showing up at a local festival is one of the fastest ways to get a true feel for a town.
Practical Land Knowledge: Walk It Now
As the combines start rolling, this is the best stretch of the year to walk rural property and actually read it. After harvest you can see the lay of every field, the tile outlets, the fence lines, the access, and how the water moves. A September land walk answers the questions a summer visit cannot. If you are thinking about selling farm ground or buying it, get out on the ground now while the stubble is fresh and the field is laid bare.
For timber owners, fall is a strong harvest window and county foresters are booking up. If you have wooded acreage and are weighing a fall or winter harvest, get a forester out to cruise the stand now, before the leaves complicate things. And the Managed Forest Law program can cut the property tax burden on ten or more acres of woodland, so ask your county forester about MFL before you do anything else with the ground. I wrote a full guide on what your timber is worth if you are trying to get a handle on the value of your wooded acres.
That Is the Week Ahead
That covers it for the first week of September. The FSA and NRCS deadlines are on the calendar, feeder cattle have pulled back with weaning on the way, corn is denting and silage is starting, the September 1 openers are in the books, and archery and fall turkey open in ten days.
If you know an event or a topic I should cover next week, send it my way. I am your Farm Gal Realtor, and I am in these communities every week. You can reach me at erica@ericalawton.com or call me at (715) 495-0456.
And if you are thinking about buying or selling rural property in Wisconsin, I would love to talk. Farm ground, hunting land, timber, ranch, recreational acreage, or a rural home. I help with all of it across West Central Wisconsin and beyond.