Producers still have time to apply to USDA’s Agriculture Risk and Price Loss Coverage programs.
They provide financial protections to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices and also serve as a safety net. The enrollment period runs through mid-March, but Dr. Paul Mitchell with the University of Wisconsin Extension says producers need to do their homework to figure out which program works best for them.
“They like to have these two programs so farmers can select the one that works best for them. Traditionally, ARC, at the county level, has worked better in the Upper Midwest, whereas PLC has tended to work better in the South for some of those crops. But even that rule doesn’t always apply. PLC is like the traditional commodity support program. It’s a price support program. It puts a floor to national prices, $3.70 for corn and $8.40 for soybeans, and these have been around for a long time this kind of a program. ARC is a little newer. It’s still been around a while, but it’s a county revenue base floor, and it mixes that national price with your local county yields to create a floor at the county level for revenue. And so, each county is a little different whereas the national price for the PLC is the same no matter where you are in the U.S..”
Looking ahead, Mitchell says the choice of programs should not be as difficult because of strong commodity prices.
