Farm Bill deadlines hit at end of March

Staff report

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency is reminding agricultural producers that deadlines are fast approaching.

Under the new Farm Bill, producers can choose whether to enroll their production in the Agricultural Risk Coverage, or ARC, or the Price Loss Coverage, called PLC, and have a chance to update their farm yield history and reallocate base acres.

All of those choices have to be in place by March 31, or the producer will not be eligible for 2014 crop year ARC or PLC payments, an FSA release says. Producers must make a one-time election for ARC or PLC for the 2014-18 crop years.

After March 31, the only option is to enroll a farm in PLC for the 2015-18 crop years, with no ARC eligibility, and the current counter-cyclical and base acres will be used.

The FSA release urged producers who have not yet made their election to call their FSA county office for more information, and to visit http://www.fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc.