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Vilsack: ARC and PLC more defensible than direct payments

The federal farm programs known as Agricultural Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage (ARC-PLC) are more defensible than the federal direct farm payments that they replace, according to Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.  It’s hard to explain to people outside of agriculture why farmers receive payments when prices are at record highs, said Secretary Vilsack.  On the other hand, the new programs, ARC and PLC, are designed to kick in when prices are low or when weather doesn’t cooperate after a farmer invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in planting a crop.

“It’s not hard to explain why the government comes to help at that point in time, because you need the help,” said Secretary Vilsack from his office Friday.  “I don’t think folks are adverse to farmers getting help when they need it; I think they were concerned about farmers getting help when they didn’t need it.”

The one-time decision to choose either ARC or PLC depends heavily on individual circumstances and should be made carefully, said Vilsack.  Computer models will provide projections based on input from the producer considering several scenarios with both ARC and PLC.

“You can make certain assumptions about prices over the course of the next several years, are prices going to go down, are they going to stay the same, are they going to go up?” said Vilsack, “and you can factor all that into this model and you can see the various scenarios so that you can hopefully make an informed decision.”

Vilsack says there will be plenty of opportunities for farmers to attend meetings and participate in webinars about the programs.  Producers will have at least until next March 31 to choose between Agricultural Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage.

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