Northwest Iowa — Farmers always have lots on their minds, but it seems like it’s getting worse with market uncertainty, the weather, uncertainty about foreign markets, and the biofuels situation… So we thought we’d help out by reminding farmers that there is a deadline approaching for a couple of programs.
Kevin McClure, Chief Program Specialist for the Iowa Farm Service Agency tells us that you’ve got about a month left. He says March 15th is the last day to complete enrollment for the 2021 ARC and PLC programs. He gives us a quick refresher what the programs are about.
(as said) “ARC/PLC is basically two parts, we’ve got the price loss coverage section and then we have the agricultural risk coverage section that makes up the ARC/PLC program. The Agricultural Risk Coverage is more of the revenue-based. And then the PLC is more straight price-based for price loss. We use a marketing year average price against an effective price that was set by Congress.”
If it seems like these deadlines have been moving around the calendar, you’re not wrong, says McClure. He says it’s been a bit confusing.
(as said) “We started out with the [20]18 Farm Bill back in 2019. Producers made one set of elections and completed enrollment and that was for the [20]19 year and the election then was locked in for 20. Starting with the [20]21 year. We have a deadline. That’s March 15th of 2021 to revise any elections on a farm and then complete enrollment. If you don’t want to revise your election, that’s not a problem. You can just complete the annual enrollment process and that deadline still remains as of March 15th, 2021. So we have changed a few dates around between the 19, 20 and then the 21 year. [For] 21 through 23, March 15th will be the deadline. “
Signup for the programs started in October 2020.
McClure says just like everything else in farming, making these choices is a little like gambling.
(as said) “What may be the best options depending on what they think the future prices are going to be. With 2021 we won’t know an MYA price until we go through that marketing year say for corn and soybeans which starts September 1 of this coming fall through August 31st of 2022.”
But, he says there are some tools out there that can help farmers make an informed decision.
(as said) “They can go to the University of Illinois’ website. They can go to the Texas A&M website or Iowa State Ag Decision Maker has got a really good tool. We have a national website that can be found at fsa.usda.gov and it will list all of those different items that they can take a look at.”
McClure says there are some COVID restrictions and the FSA counters remain closed. But they are doing business via phone, fax, US Mail, and email, so just call your local FSA office and they can get the ARC and PLC process started for you.
