INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM:  R&D-96-049
     
TO:      All Reinsured Companies
         All Risk Management Field Offices
              
FROM:    Tim B. Witt        /s/ 8-23-96
         Director
         Research and Development Division
     
SUBJECT: Minimum Plant Count for Irrigated Alfalfa in South Dakota.  
     
     
BACKGROUND:
     
Forage production insurance was added to South Dakota beginning with the
1997 crop year.  Plant count per square foot is needed to determine
acreage insurability.  
     
Following discussions with the forage production specialist at South
Dakota State University, nine plants per square foot the first harvest
year has been established for South Dakota irrigated alfalfa.  This is
the same plant population per square foot used in Minnesota and
Nebraska.
     
Using nine alfalfa plants per square foot for the first harvest year
will leave an average of four and one-half alfalfa plants per square
foot for the third and successive harvest years.
     
ACTION:
     
Use the following plant count for South Dakota, irrigated alfalfa for
the 1997 crop year in conjunction with Exhibit 6, Paragraph C of
FCIC-30150-1 Forage Production Handbook.
                   
                   Plant-Population-Per-square-Foot-Table
------------------------------------------------------------------------
             :                :  Alfalfa  :  Alfalfa/  :   Grass 
State        : Practice       :  Plants   :   Grass    :  Mixtures
------------------------------------------------------------------------
South Dakota : Irrigated (002):      9    :            :
             :                :           :            :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
The Forage Production Handbook will be updated to reflect this when
reissued or slipsheeted.