Northwest Iowa — Farmers and farm owners are being “strongly encouraged” to contact their local FSA office to set up an appointment or arrange for ARC and/or PLC contracts to be sent out to them.
They remind those involved that the March 15 deadline is fast approaching.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency is encouraging producers to contact their local USDA Service Centers to make or change elections and to enroll for 2022 Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC), providing future protection against market fluctuations. The election and enrollment period opened on Oct. 18, 2021 and runs through March 15, 2022.
If producers have any changes, the FSA says they will also need to know these ahead so FSA staff have time to make the necessary changes. All shareholders must sign the contracts.
FSA officials tell us that producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-CO or PLC, which are both crop-by-crop, or ARC-IC (individual ARC), which is for the entire farm. They say that although election changes for 2022 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year. Also, if a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm and makes an election change for 2022, it will be necessary to sign a new contract. If an election is not submitted by the deadline of March 15, 2022, the election remains the same as the 2021 election for crops on the farm.
Farm owners cannot enroll in either program unless they have an interest in the farm’s crops. Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed, and wheat.
Web-Based Decision Tools
In partnership with USDA, the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University offer web-based decision tools to assist producers in making informed, educated decisions using crop data specific to their respective farming operations. Tools include:
Gardner-farmdoc Payment Calculator, a tool available through the University of Illinois allows producers to estimate payments for farms and counties for ARC-CO and PLC.
ARC and PLC Decision Tool, a tool available through Texas A&M allows producers to estimate payments and yield updates and expected payments for 2022.
ARC and PLC are part of a broader safety net provided by USDA, which also includes crop insurance and marketing assistance loans. Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC elections and enrollments can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products. Producers on farms with a PLC election have the option of purchasing Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider; however, producers on farms where ARC is the election are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres for that crop on that farm. Unlike SCO, the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is unaffected by an ARC election. Producers may add ECO regardless of the farm program election. Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the stacked income protection plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres for that farm.
For more information on ARC and PLC, you can visit the ARC and PLC webpage or contact your USDA Service Center.
