What kids have to look forward to

All you kids out there, listen up! This is what you have to look forward to in life after college. Don't get me wrong the paycheck and leave days are nice, but there just isn't the excitement that there was in everyday college life to be found in everyday "big kid" life.

According to the guys who have lived around here their whole lives, and their fathers before them, and their fathers before them.....last year was one of the worst droughts in the last 60 years. As we look back on it and look towards 2013....we might top last years drought this year. Boo! FSA offers a program acronymed NAP (Non-insurable assistance program). NAP is a catastrophic insurance plan that is available for crops that aren't covered by traditional crop insurance such as grass hay and grazing, my 2 biggest crops in my 2 counties. Because it is a catastrophic insurance the producer must have a 50% loss before they would receive a disaster payment however; because it is catastrophic insurance the premium is fairly inexpensive, $250 per crop, per year.

For the last 2 weeks I have been calculating NAP disaster payments on federal grazing permits. It doesn't sound that hard, but alas the federal government has decided to "new and improve" another process. I have more "worksheets" than federal permits to figure out THE number to enter into the software to make sure that the payment that is calculated by the software is correct. Enter....Exhibit 21 which is an Excel spreadsheet developed by New Mexico to calculate payments on federal permits. Each Exhibit 21 will accommodate up to 4 permits (or 4 schedules). Sounds like alot right? Lets just say I don't have many that bought NAP insurance that fit on one Exhibit 21.

I was staring........cross-eyed......at my computer and it hit me, what we needed was a challenge!

So I present to you.....

THE GRAZING PERMIT CHALLENGE

Basically, I challenged all the other CEDs in Wyoming to find out who has the producer who has the largest number of Exhibit 21s required to complete the NAP disaster payment calculations. Whoever wins gets a "prize" made by........you guessed it........ME! We've already had donations into the "pot" for the winner. The rules for the Challenge are:

1. The number of Exhibit 21 will be totaled by producer, not by application. Example: if a producer has more than one entity and/or mutiple counties, his applications will be totaled together.
2. If Patty catches you cheating during her County Office Review (COR) of your NAP program, you must forfeit all prizes and be deemed a cheater forever!
3. All entries must be turned in by May 1, 2013

Now, I'm just throwing this out there, but I was informed by a producer a couple weeks ago that I need to understand that their operation is VERY complex and there won't be another application in the world that is like theirs......so I'm probably going to win, just sayin. Plus isn't the person who develops the challenge supposed to win said challenge. (Maybe you guys should root for me, a little extra cheering can't hurt, right?)

PS. I wish I would have never said  "I'm so ready to get out of ________(fill in your college town)! Choose your words carefully young grasshoppers!