Crop Producers Need to Act on Farm Bill Decisions by March 15

Feb 14, 2023

By Ann Johanns and Alejandro Plastina

Crop producers must make some important and timely decisions if they want to participate in the Farm Bill programs for 2023.

The deadline to make an election and enroll is March 15, according to Ann Johanns, education extension specialist and manager of the Ag Decision Maker with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

For program year 2023, producers have three options: Agriculture Risk Coverage-County (ARC-CO), Price Loss Coverage (PLC) or Agriculture Risk Coverage-Individual Coverage (ARC-IC). Even if producers have enrolled in the past and want to keep the same program, they still need to enroll this year, by March 15. Enrollment is an annual decision.

“To be eligible for payment, producers must complete the enrollment contract for each of their farms,” said Johanns. “Every situation is unique, so we need to make the best decisions for individual farm operations and take the opportunity to make changes if necessary.”

For this month’s Ag Decision Maker, Johanns created two YouTube videos that explain the options and what producers need to consider in making the best option for their farm. In the first video, Kevin McClure, chief agriculture program specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, explains the programs and enrollment process.

In the second video, Alejandro Plastina, associate professor in economics and extension economist at Iowa State, discusses the tools producers can use to determine which program is best for their own situation. The tools include payment estimators for each program, and historical payment data by Iowa county.

“We are updating these tools as new price projections and yield data are made available,” said Johanns. “We know that every situation is unique and there are going to be folks out there making this decision for the first time. Updated tools are available, along with archived materials covering the programs more in-depth

Source : iastate.edu

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.