The rules for participating in the new Farm Bill programs have many people asking questions. Questions arise frequently at the meetings that Purdue University Extension and the Farm Service Agency are holding around the state. Contact your local Extension office or FSA office to see when the next meeting closest to you will be held.
In the meantime, here is a sneak peek with items from our January Indiana Prairie Farmer issue. It carries a column reinstated to help you work through the 2014 Farm Bill called FSA Close-up. Each issue FSA's experts answer questions that might not occur to everyone, but that are important enough to let everyone know about.
Related: USDA Rolls Out Details of 2014 Farm Bill Safety Net Options
Watch for your next issue in the mail to read more questions and answers. And if you have a question and want an answer from FSA, email tbechman@farmprogress.com and we will see that you get an answer.
Carl Schweikhardt, an FSA specialist in the Indiana FSA office, provides the answers.
Question: Who makes the decision to update yields and/or reallocate bases?
FSA: The current owner or owners of the farm make the yield update and base reallocation determination. For yields the determination is on a crop-by-crop basis. For bases the producer will choose between the bases on the farm as of September 30, 2013, or the reallocated bases determined by the proportional planting of covered commodities for 2009 through 2012.
Question: Who must make the program election on a farm?
FSA: All current producers, including owners and operators on the farm with a share of the 2014 crops must agree to the program election: PLC, ARC-County or ARC- Individual. If election is not made by March 31, 2015, the farm defaults to PLC for all crops on the farm. And he farm is not eligible for enrollment for the 2014 program year.