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Economist hopes for ARC-PLC changes in next farm bill

An agricultural economist says he hopes the farm bill safety net programs are modernized in the next farm bill.

Paul Mitchell with the University of Wisconsin-Madison tells Brownfield the recently-announced Ag Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage payments for the 2023 crop year are not helping farmers very much. “There is definitely going to be a lot of push for updating the programs. Its’ very clear we’ve got bad margins out there and some issues, economic issues for commodity producers in the U.S. and these programs are just not going to help, and there’s a long delay.” He says he’s not expecting next fall’s payments for this crop year to be much better.

Mitchell says for most farmers in his home state, “Prices were still above the gaurantees, and so the county had to have a low average yield and not many Wisconsin counties had low average yields for corn and soybeans in the ’23 crop year.”

Mitchell says lawmakers need to know with low reference prices, ARC and PLC no longer provide an adequate safety net. “Triggering payments isn’t always good in the sense that the major county had low yields and so some farmers are worse off in years when they trigger payments because even with the payments, it’s not enough to make up for the losses.”

Mitchell says he expects there will be a lot of pressure to update the farm bill once everyone knows which political party has the majority.

Audio: Paul Mitchell discusses ARC and PLC with Brownfield’s Larry Lee