Agricultural Economics Department

 

Date of this Version

2-4-2015

Citation

Cornhusker Economics, February 4, 2015.

Comments

Copyright University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abstract

Nebraska crop producers are currently analyzing farm program alternatives and making decisions at local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices. Nebraska Extension has partnered with FSA to pro-vide educational meetings to producers to cover program details, decisions, and analysis tools. Ex-tension educators and specialists working on farm bill education delivered an initial round of more than 70 educational meetings in conjunction with FSA in late 2014 and reached nearly 11,000 produc-ers, landowners, and agricultural professionals across the state, with more educational meetings and analysis workshops continuing at present.

The focus of these educational meetings and analy-sis is a portfolio of new farm programs and policies and the set of three farm program decisions facing producers and landowners under the 2014 Farm Bill. Landowners face a decision on whether to up-date their program payment yields and a decision on whether to update (reallocate) their program base acreage by February 27 while producers face a deci-sion about electing the ARC (Agriculture Risk Cov-erage) or PLC (Price Loss Coverage) program by March 31.

The decisions range from simple to complex and involve not just an understanding of farm program mechanics, but also crop insurance options, individ-ual farm data and history, and a perspective on the outlook for commodity market prices through the 2018 crop year.

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