A website from UGA Cooperative Extension

Here are some comments from Nathan Smith, Extension Economist:

“FSA recently held training for State Staff on ARCPLC enrollment.   Producers are required to enroll annually in the ARCPLC program to be eligible to receive payments.   The enrollment period is expected to begin mid-June.  Enrollment for 2014 and 2015 ARCPLC will take place during this signup period.  Producers will need to complete and sign form CCC-861 (ARC-CO and PLC) or CCC-862 (ARC-IC).   Also, acreage certification (FSA-578), called cropland certification, is due to the FSA office on July 15.

New Reconstitution Rules

A new twist on ARC-County elections will affect payments depending on the county and farm’s irrigation history.  For ARC-CO only, counties that meet the HIP (historical irrigation percentage) criteria have irrigated and non-irrigated ARC-CO benchmarks, guarantees, and payments.  The HIP criteria for a specific covered commodity in a county are at least 25% of the acres of the crop were irrigated and 25% of the acres were non-irrigated for the time period 2009-2012.  HIP eligible counties can trigger an ARC-CO payment for one practice or both depending on the county yield each year.  The farm level HIP factor is calculated same as the county, the irrigated and non-irrigated history of the covered commodity on the farm from 2009 to 2012.  The farm level HIP factor will be used to determine the ARC-CO payment for a farm when a payment triggers for the irrigated or non-irrigated practice or both.

The real concern with the establishment of a HIP for a farm is related to reconstitutions.  The rule recently written requires the HIP for each common crop to be the same on all parent farms looking to be combined.  In other words, farms with HIP-eligible common crops must have the same HIP factor in order to be combined in a reconstitution.  This will effectively prevent combining farms through reconstitution unless they are all irrigated or all non-irrigated.   Remember, to be able to combine farms, the same ARCPLC elections had to be made on the covered crops.  The HIP rule will likely prevent most farm combinations that were planned.

Prevented and Failed Planting and Generic Acres

A question that has come up a couple times on prevented planting is “will prevented planting acreage be attributed to generic base?”  In short, the answer is no according to Farm Service Agency.  A covered commodity, such as peanuts, has to be planted in order to be attributed to generic base.  The final planting date for peanuts was June 5 for most counties in Georgia.  The late planting period runs either 10 or 15 days after the final planting date where coverage is reduced 1% per day until June 15.

Failed planting acres of a covered commodity, however, does count and will be attributed to generic base on a farm with generic base.   Below is an update of prevented and failed planting info from 2014 Peanut Pointers article.

Final Planting Date (FPD)

The Final Planting Date is the last date a producer may plant and the acreage be eligible for full crop insurance coverage (receive the 100% of Production Guarantee or Revenue Guarantee). The producer is not required to plant after the FPD but may do so at reduced coverage of 1% per day through the late planting period.

Georgia Final Planting Date

Crop Date Counties
Cotton May 20 Bartow, Chattooga, Elbert, Floyd, Franklin, Gordon, Hart, Henry, McDuffie, Monroe, Morgan, Oconee, Polk, Spalding, Walton, and Warren
Cotton May 31 All other counties
Peanut May 31 Jefferson, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Richmond, Treutlen, Washington, Wilkinson
Peanut June 5 All other counties
Grain Sorghum June 20 All counties
Soybeans June 15 All counties

Late Planting Period (LPP). If the producer so elects, planting may continue during the late planting period at reduced coverage of 1% per day. Planting may continue even after the late planting period and coverage will be at the Prevented Planting guarantee (50% of the full season guarantee for cotton and peanuts and 60% of the full season guarantee for grain sorghum and soybeans).

Georgia Late Planting Period

Crop Period Counties
Cotton May 21 – June 4(15 days) Bartow, Chattooga, Elbert, Floyd, Franklin, Gordon, Hart, Henry, McDuffie, Monroe, Morgan, Oconee, Polk, Spalding, Walton, and Warren
Cotton June 1 – June 15(15 days) All other counties
Peanut June 1 – June 15(15 days) Jefferson, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Richmond, Treutlen, Washington, Wilkinson
Peanut June 6 – June 15(10 days) All other counties
Grain Sorghum June 20 – July 04(15 days) All counties
Soybeans June 16 – July 10(25 days) All counties

Farmers can still plant peanuts and cotton after June 15, but the guarantee drops to 50 percent for peanuts and cotton. If the producer is unable to plant by the final planting date, the producer may file for prevented planting” and must do so within 72 hours after the Final Planting Date. If the producer is unable to plant during the Late Planting Period, again the producer must file for “prevented planting” within 72 hours of the late planting deadline. Filing for prevented planting requires documentation on the part of the producer.”

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