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Reaction to the sign-up extension

farm bill sign up photoAgriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced a one-time extension of the deadline to update base acres or yield history for the ARC and PLC programs.

Vilsack made the announcement today at Commodity Classic in Phoenix.

Farmers now have until March 31st to update yields and reallocate base acres. The original deadline was today.

Kenneth Hartman, president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, says it was the right call.

“I did get mine done last week before coming here (to Phoenix),” Hartman tells Brownfield, “but I know there’s a lot of farmers that are struggling to get some of the yields up, because there are situations where farmers just are taking over farms the last couple of years and changes in who is the producer and the tenants and owners of the farms.

“So this gives them a little more opportunity to work on some of that to try to get those yields accurate and get them in.”

Nebraska Farm Bureau also welcomed the change.

“By bringing sign-up for these provisions in line with decisions that must be made related to the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage, farmers have a clear picture of sign-up expectations, eliminating speculation of any further extensions,” said Steve Nelson, Nebraska Farm Bureau president.

Secretary Vilsack estimates about 60 percent of the farmers who intend to update their yields and base acres have actually done so.

“This primarily, I think, is a response and reaction to concerns that we’ve received primarily from producers in the South, about the process that they’re undertaking to get their numbers right,” Vilsack says.

Sign-up for the ARC and PLC is around 30 percent complete, says Vilsack.

“We’ve seen a remarkable uptick in the last couple of weeks,” he says. “That number was very, very low just two weeks ago and it’s really shot up. So we’ll see.  We’ll see.

“We know this is an important election for folks. We know it’s going to govern their operations for years and we want to be helpful.  We want to work with them.”

The deadline for choosing between ARC and PLC remains March 31st.

Photo courtesy USDA-FSA

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