U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the release of Farm Bill program decision tools. The online tools will show farmers and ranchers payment differences between new commodity programs.
DTN-The Progressive Farmer reports the USDA announced updates of base acres can begin Sept. 29. The rule for electing between Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) is expected to be posted in the Federal Register as early as Friday.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack indicated farmers could make that ARC-PLC election as early as next week, but he cautioned against doing so. He urges farmers to utilize the online tools.
The online decision tools were developed separately by the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University. Gary Schnitkey, an ag economist at the University of Illinois, said the two tools should give farmers the same answers until farmers change price forecasts. The programs use price projections from USDA, but also allow farmers to change those projections.
Visit these links for more information: Fact Sheet on ARC-PLC: http://www.dtn.com/…; USDA details and calculator tools: www.fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc; University of Illinois decision tool: http://farmbilltoolbox.farmdoc.illinois.edu/…; Texas A&M decision tool: https://www.afpc.tamu.edu/…