WAWG
Earlier this year, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced producers participating in the Agriculture Risk Coverage County Option (ARC-CO) would have an opportunity to request a change of FSA administrative county for your farm. The deadline to request the transfer is now April 15, 2016.
FSA bases a farm’s payments for the Agriculture Risk Coverage County (ARC-CO) program on county data for the county where the farm is administered. This means that a farm physically located in County A will receive an ARC-CO payment if payments are triggered in County B if the farm is administered by the FSA office in County B. The reverse is also true; a farm physically located in County A but administered in County B will not receive a payment if there are none made in County B, even if payments occur in County A.
Because payments in this program are county specific, a small number of farms participating in the program experienced a mismatch between administrative county and physical location. For this reason, FSA is allowing producers on a farm to select the physical or administrative location county for 2014 and 2015 ARC-CO payment calculations. The decision may be made independently for each year.
In some cases, the recalculation for a farm may result in a higher payment for one crop and a lower payment for another crop. The recalculated payment will be the net of the two payments and in some cases may necessitate one shareholder returning a portion of a payment if the shares are split by crops among producers. All producers on a farm with a share in the payments must unanimously agree to recalculate the payment based on the physical location of the tracts. County offices now have the tools to assist producers in determining the net 2014 payments for physical or administrative counties. If your farm is subject to this change, the operator of record should receive a postcard soon on this option.
Important FSA Dates and Deadlines
March 15, 2016 – Deadline to purchase 2016 crop year Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage for artichokes, beet seed or fresh, buckwheat, camelina, carrots fresh or processing, mustard, radish for seed or fresh, small grain forages (wheat, barley, oats, peas), and other spring planted crops.
March 31, 2016 – Deadline to request a commodity marketing assistance loan (MAL) or loan deficiency payment (LDP) for 2015 harvested crops of barley, canola, crambe, flaxseed, honey, oats, rapeseed, wheat, or sesame seed.
April 15, 2016 – Deadline to request change of administrative county for Agriculture Risk Coverage County (ARC-CO) program.