Operators and lenders are trying to understand what safety net payments might be provided under the 2014 farm bill for the 2015 crop year. A new excel worksheet, “2015 ARC-PLC Calculator,” is available at http://bit.ly/payment-calculator to project those payments.
The 2015 ARC-PLC Calculator will show producers their Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage – County (ARC-CO) payments under different 2015 marketing year average (MYA) price and county yield scenarios.
“The 2015 MYA price is the one unknown for determining the PLC payment,” says Andrew Swenson, North Dakota State University Extension Service farm and family resource management specialist. “Even at this early date, I believe you can get a fairly good range of possible PLC payments for many crops.”
Swenson adds, “Currently, we are five months into the marketing year for wheat and its latest projected national average price is $5. That would provide a 50-cent payment per bushel of PLC payment yield.”
Corn and soybean national 2015 MYA prices are less certain because they are only two months into the 2015 marketing year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting a $3.65 per bushel corn and $8.90 per bushel soybean MYA price. At this level, the corn PLC payment would be a nickel per bushel of PLC yield, but the soybean price would have to drop another 50 cents per bushel before a PLC payment is triggered.
The benchmark revenue and revenue guarantees for the 2015 ARC-CO program have been determined for most crops. The actual 2015 MYA price and county yields are not known yet. However, producers should receive significant ARC-CO payments for most crops unless 2015 county yields are much higher than typical yields.
Producers cannot receive PLC and ARC-CO payments for the same crop on a farm. They had to make a choice in which program to enroll each crop on the FSA farm number.
Source:ndsu.edu