The Sidwell family farms in Northern Colorado and Southeast Wyoming. Several years ago they rented a sizeable irrigated farm in Northeast Nebraska. At that time, they applied for Direct Decoupled (DD) payments on the farm given the historical crop base and yields, and received these payments with no indication from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) there might be a problem.
Imagine the family’s surprise one day when they received a letter from FSA saying they did not qualify and FSA wanted a six-figure payment returned. Not only that, but the agency indicated that two additional years would be reviewed. The family had to get the situation corrected or risk losing the farm.
The Sidwells spoke with a Colorado attorney that knew of KCoe Isom’s specialty work in farm programs.
KCoe Isom’s farm program team immediately recognized the complexity of the case. After considerable research and several meetings with the Sidwells, we established that they had met the requirements. This was wonderful news but now our team had to convince FSA.
KCoe Isom built a comprehensive appeal record, met with all parties to the case and explained how the Sidwells met the requirements.
The Sidwells not only won their appeal and avoided returning their past payment but the FSA also dropped its audit of the other two years. KCoe Isom’s 40 years of farm program experience and our reputation with FSA made the difference.
