News

New commodity base acre provision expected to help strengthen the farm safety net

Some farmers could have expanded access to federal risk management programs for the 2026 crop year.

Gary Schnitkey with the University of Illinois says some farmers could qualify for new base acres.

“The current base acres aren’t going to change,” he says. “But, if a farm averages above the number of base acres, there could be an opportunity to add additional base acres.”

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated 30 million new commodity base acres through the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs.

Nick Paulson with the University of Illinois says the update is expected to help strengthen the farm safety net.

“For ARC and PLC, that’s going to make more of your acres eligible for those programs,” he says. “Those are expected to be triggering some significantly larger payments this year.”

Both say the changes could help provide more certainty ahead of the 2026 crop year.

Brownfield interviewed Schnitkey and Paulson during the 2026 All Day Ag Outlook Conference in Covington, Indiana.

AUDIO: Gary Schnitkey, University of Illinois

AUDIO: Nick Paulson, University of Illinois