2014 Farm Bill Update

New Commodity Programs

The 2014 Farm Bill has several new programs for producers and eliminates Direct Payments, Counter Cyclical Payments, SURE (Supplemental Revenue Assistance) and ACRE (Average Crop Revenue Election). It also strengthens crop insurance by providing more risk management options for farmers and ranchers. The new Title I programs offered by the Farm Service Agency include Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC). Producers will have to make a one-time, irrevocable decision to select one of the two programs.

Area Revenue Protection (ARC) can be elected individually to all crops on a given farm number or at a county level to all farms for a given crop.

For farms where the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) option is elected at the Farm Service Agency, the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) can be added to your crop insurance policy. SCO provides area-based coverage up to 86 percent of your underlying crop insurance deductible. Indemnities will be payable once a 14 percent loss has occurred in the county and individual payments will depend upon coverage levels selected by producers. This endorsement will be available in select counties for corn, soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum, rice and cotton starting with the 2015 crop year and is only available on RP, YP and RPHPE crop insurance plans.

Visit the following websites to learn more on the details of the 2014 farm bill and to gain familiarity by using the decision tools and calculators.

• http://www.farmdoc.illinois.edu/farmbilltoolbox/index.asp


• https://afpc.tamu.edu/models/decisionaid.php


• http://www.rma.usda.gov/news/currentissues/farmbill/

Beginning Farmer and Rancher (BFR)

New for the 2015 crop year is the Beginning Farmer and Rancher (BFR) program. Qualifications for BFR include having not actively managed a farm or ranch for more than 5 years or have an insurable interest in a crop or livestock as an owner-operator, landlord, tenant or sharecropper. An insured may exclude years of having an interest in a farm or ranch if they were under the age of 18, in post-secondary studies or on active military duty. An insured will receive an administrative fee waiver, an additional 10 percent premium subsidy and a yield adjustment increase from 65 percent to 80 percent of the county T-yield if qualified.

Contact your crop insurance agent for more details if you think you might qualify.

Conservation Compliance

If you have highly erodible land (HEL) or wetland in your farming operation you must be in compliance with the FSA to receive the subsidy on your crop insurance for the 2016 crop year. A certificate of compliance (form AD-1026) must be on file at FSA by June 1, 2015, if you plant on converted wetland or plant on HEL without a conservation plan in place. The AD-1026 compliance form is continuous and will not need to be refiled unless changes are made to your farming operation in the future.