The Grundy County Farm Service Agency (FSA) Office is currently enrolling producers for the 2014 and 2015 Average Revenue Coverage/Price Loss Coverage (ARC/PLC) programs. Many producers think they were finished with signing up for these programs after they updated bases and yields for their farms and then made a selection between the PLC, ARC-CO and ARC-IC programs. This is not the case! Producers still must ENROLL their farm(s) for both 2014 and 2015 in order to receive a payment for those years. ENROLLMENT is the actual signing of the ARC/PLC contract that contains the payment shares for 2014 and 2015. This enrollment step determines which producers on a farm will be paid and their share of the payment if one is earned on a farm. In addition, many farms changed hands or had different operators in 2014 than in 2015 so this process determines that payments are made to the correct producers for the year they were farming a farm or had a share of a crop on a particular farm.

Once again we are using an appointment system for this sign up so please contact our office to make an appointment if you do not have one already or missed the one that was scheduled for you earlier. If you want to change your appointment, please contact our office prior to your scheduled appointment time. We will try to have the enrollment paperwork ready for you by the day of your appointment.

The deadline to enroll for 2014 and 2015 ARC/PLC is September 30, 2015. There are no late file provisions at this time. Any producer that receives a share of the payment greater than zero on a farm in 2014 or 2015 must submit the signed enrollment contract indicating their share of the payment by that date.

Many, many producers are asking what the farm program payment will be and how soon they will get it. The final payment amounts for the 2014 crop have not been determined at this time. That is because at this time the Marketing Year Average (MYA) prices and even the 2014 County yields that will be used to make the determination of the payment amounts for the ARC and PLC programs are not yet final.

Also, payments, if earned, are made on 85% of the farm’s base for that commodity for the PLC and ARC-CO programs. For the ARC-Individual Coverage program, payments if earned, are made on 65% of the farm’s base. Any payments that are made for the 2014 crop year will be made after October 1st, 2015 and will also be subject to a 7.3% sequestration payment reduction amount.

So remember, if you are not enrolled, you will NOT receive a payment! Even if you did the first 2 steps base and yield update, then the election you still MUST complete the third step, enrollment, by September 30th, 2015. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact the Grundy County FSA Office at 319-824-5416.