34 March 27, 2014 2014 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
PLC payments occur if U.S. average market price
for the crop year is less than the crop’s reference
price. Reference prices are: wheat, $5.50/bushel;
corn, $3.70/bushel; grain sorghum, $3.95/bushel;
barley, $4.95/bushel; oats, $2.40/bushel; long grain
rice, $14.00/hundredweight (cwt).; medium grain rice,
$14.00/cwt.; soybeans, $8.40/bushel; other oilseeds,
$20.15/cwt.; peanuts $535.00/ton; dry peas, $11.00/
cwt.; lentils, $19.97/cwt.; small chickpeas, $19.04/
cwt.; and large chickpeas, $21.54/cwt.
County ARC payments occur when actual crop
revenue is below the ARC revenue guarantee for a
crop year. County ARC guarantee is 86% of county
ARC benchmark revenue. Coverage is capped at
10%, meaning coverage is between 76% and 86%
of the county ARC benchmark revenue. County ARC
benchmark revenue is based on the Olympic average
(removes high and low values) of county yields and
U.S. crop year average prices for the 5 preceding
crop years.
Individual farm ARC is a whole farm, not individual
crop, program. In essence, it is based on the average
covered commodity experience on the farm.
For both PLC and county ARC, payment acres for a
crop are 85% of the farm’s base acres for the crop
plus any generic base acres (former cotton base
acres) planted to the crop. Individual ARC payments
acres are 65% of the sum of the farm’s total base
acres and any generic base acres planted to covered
crops on the farm.
Total base acres on a farm are the same as current
base acres. However a farm can elect to reallocate
base acres among the farm’s covered crops according
to each covered crop’s share of the farm’s total acres
planted to covered crops over the 2009-2012 crop
years.
The Secretary of Agriculture is to develop procedures
for identifying and eliminating base acres on land
that has been subdivided and developed for multiple
residential units or non-farming uses and is unlikely to
return to agriculture uses.
PLC payment yields can be updated to 90% of the
farm’s average planted yield over the 2008-2012 crop
years.
(End of copy)
The new farm bill also created a new type of coverage:
shallow-loss crop insurance. This will be referred to in
the future as a supplemental coverage option, or SCO.
To date, the complete details of how this policy will
work have not been outlined.
One part of the bill that experts feel may be confusing
is that this particular insurance is not in effect for the
2014 insurance period. Producers who wish to take
advantage of the SCO will have the opportunity to do
so in 2015.
This delay may be a good thing because the changes
in insurance are complicated and intricate in the
collection of data. Producers are going to need
time to research all that is available and understand
thoroughly what they have to supply in order to
receive their coverage.
Since the passage of the farm bill, U.S. Rep. Steven
Fincher, a Tennessee Republican and the only
Continued to page 35
