MARSHALL — Some area Farm Service Agency employees are being called back in to work this week to help farmers with loan services.

Some area FSA offices, including the office in Marshall, will be open today, Friday and Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Wednesday that many FSA offices would temporarily reopen and offer limited services for farmers and ranchers. The USDA said it has recalled about 2,500 employees around the country to open offices on Jan. 17, 18 and 21. The offices will be closed during the Martin Luther King Day holiday.

FSA employees are among the federal employees furloughed during the partial government shutdown. The shutdown is now in its 27th day.

The USDA said almost half of FSA office locations around the country will temporarily reopen. FSA staff will be available to help agricultural producers with existing farm loans, and to make sure borrowers receive 1099 tax documents by the Internal Revenue Service’s deadline.

“Until Congress sends President Trump an appropriations bill in the form that he will sign, we are doing our best to minimize the impact of the partial federal funding lapse on America’s agricultural producers,” Perdue said. “We are bringing back part of our FSA team to help producers with existing farm loans. Meanwhile, we continue to examine our legal authorities to ensure we are providing services to our customers to the greatest extent possible during the shutdown.”

A total of 20 county FSA offices in Minnesota will reopen, including the offices in Marshall, Redwood Falls, and Worthington. The Lyon County FSA office in Marshall is located at 1424 East College Drive at the Market Street Mall.

The USDA said FSA staff will be available to help ag producers with specific services, including processing payments made on or before Dec. 31, 2018, continuing expiring financing statements, and opening mail to identify priority items. The USDA said staff may also release proceeds from the sale of loan security by signing checks jointly payable to FSA that are brought to the county office by producers.

Additionally, farmers who have loan deadlines during the lapse in federal funding do not need to make payments until the government shutdown ends, the USDA said.

The reopened FSA offices will not be able to provide certain services, including new direct or facility loans, new farm loan guarantees, new marketing assistance loans, new applications for the Market Facilitation program, certification of 2018 production for MFP payments, the Dairy Margin Protection Program, and disaster assistance programs.

The original deadline for MFP applications was Jan. 15. However, farmers have been unable to apply since FSA offices closed on Dec. 28. Perdue has extended the MFP application deadline for a period of time equal to the number of business days FSA offices end up being closed, once the government shutdown ends. The USDA said the three days the FSA offices are reopened won’t count as open office days for the deadline extension.