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2018 ARC-Co corn and soybean payments few and far between

A farm management analyst says there won’t be many 2018 ARC-county payments for corn and soybean farmers.

Kent Thiesse with MinnStar Bank (in south-central Minnesota) tells Brownfield there needs to be about a 12 percent yield reduction compared to the county benchmark since the trigger will probably be around $3.55 for corn and $8.60 for soybeans.

“There were some areas that had reduced yields last year because of the wet weather, but a lot of the Upper Midwest once again had near-average or above-average yields. So there’s going to be very few payments for the 2018 crop year.”

He says payments will come out in October.

Thiesse points out farmers will have more flexibility once the 2018 Farm Bill is implemented.

“It’ll be a two year choice for 2019 and 2020, and then the final three years of the farm bill farmers can make an annual choice. So they’ll be able to look at the numbers each year to decide on a crop by crop basis what is more favorable on their farm.”

He says signup for ARC and PLC under the new farm bill should begin this summer.