Farmers are questioning why Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) payments are not equal in counties with similar yield numbers and the same reference price.
“Some counties are showing a maximum payment of $90 to $110 per acre,” David Gibson, executive director of Texas Corn Producers Board (TCPB) and Texas Corn Producers Association in Lubbock, told Southwest Farm Press. “In adjacent counties, payment is zero.”
TCPB is working with the Texas Farm Service Agency (FSA) and other entities to determine where the differences originate.
“We’re also working with U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry’s office. We’re looking at the Risk Management Association (RMA) yield, and we’ve pulled National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) yields. We can’t explain the difference by looking at the numbers. We hope to get some answers,” Gibson said.
But grain sorghum farmers are satisfied with how the farm safety net worked, although most chose the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) option.
“More than 66 percent of sorghum producers in the U.S. chose (Price Loss Coverage) PLC,” John Duff, strategic business and farm policy analysis director for the National Sorghum Producers (NSP), told Southwest Farm Press.
Duff says Texas growers may have enrolled more than 66 percent of their acreage in PLC and sorghum farmers nationally received about $200 million from farm bill payments.