U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Gary Six reminds Texas producers that December 7, 2018, is the final day for seed cotton producers who want to participate in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2018 crop to submit applications. The signup period began July 30, 2018.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 added seed cotton as a covered commodity; replacing generic base acres.

According to Six, owners of a farm with generic base acres as of September 30, 2013, and a recent planting history of covered commodities have a one-time opportunity to allocate generic base acres.

Steps for implementing the allocation of seed cotton are:

Attribution of generic base acres, yield updates, program elections for seed cotton base acres and enrollment for farms that formerly contained generic base acres must be completed by the Dec. 7, 2018, deadline.

"It's imperative that producers who have not yet started or completed the enrollment process do so immediately," said Six. "If the entire process is not completed by the Dec. 7 deadline, FSA will have no valid contract on file and there will be no possibility for program payments if cotton triggers an ARC or PLC payment for the 2018 crop year."

Call your local FSA office as soon as possible to schedule an appointment to complete the attribution, yield update, program election and enrollment process.

For local FSA Service Center contact information, please visit www.farmers.gov.

Source: USDA