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Farm Bill extension might give farmers an opt out for ARC-Co

A farm management analyst says farmers locked into five-year commitments with the ARC-County program might be able to switch to PLC if the current Farm Bill gets extended.

Kent Thiesse is with MinnStar Bank in south-central Minnesota.

“In the last Farm Bill we had the ACRE program, the statewide program that was somewhat similar to ARC-County, and that was a five-year commitment.  (That) Farm Bill got extended one year and farmers that were in ACRE were allowed to opt out for the final year and go into the price-only program (that was similar to PLC).”

He tells Brownfield low prices and high yields are resulting in fewer payments for the more than 90 percent of crop farmers enrolled in ARC-County.

Thiesse says with a Farm Bill deadline of September 30^th and negotiations sputtering in the House, the likelihood of an extension is increasing.

“Farmers are going to want to take a close look (to see) if they want to stay in ARC-County or switch over to PLC.  And right now for sure in corn, given where the benchmark price is at, there’s probably some advantage to look at PLC for corn.  We aren’t going to know that probably for another 6 to 8 months, but it’s certainly something to keep in the back of your mind as this year progresses.”

House Ag Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson recently told Brownfield he thinks a one-year extension of the current Farm Bill is likely because partisan division over the nutrition title has stalled progress on the 2018 Farm Bill.