From the U.S. Department of Agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that seed cotton producers, who want to participate in the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs for the 2018 crop year, may now submit applications. The signup period begins today and ends on Dec. 7.

In accordance with changes to ARC and PLC made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, farm owners with generic base acres and recent planting history of covered commodities have a one-time opportunity to allocate all of the generic base acres on their farm.

“ARC and PLC are a vital part of the safety net that ensures American agriculture remains competitive and producers are able to manage risk,” said USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce. “USDA encourages any cotton producer to look into these important safety net programs,”

Farms with generic base acres that were planted or approved as a prevented planted commodity during the 2009 through 2016 crop years, are eligible to allocate generic base acres. This includes upland cotton.

Producers have two options to allocate generic base:

Option 1 — Allocate generic base acres on a farm to seed cotton base acres equal to the higher of the following:

80 percent of the generic base acres on the farm;

The remaining 20 percent goes to unassigned base acres for which there will be no payments;

The average of planted and prevented from planted upland cotton acres on the farm in crop years 2009 through 2012, not to exceed the total generic base acres on the farm.

Option 2 — Allocate generic base acres in proportion to the 4-year average acreage planted on the farm and prevented from being planted for each covered commodity, including upland cotton, in crop years 2009 through 2012, to the total acreage planted and considered planted for all covered commodities on the farm.

An increase in total base acres on the farm is not allowed. For farms without planted or considered planted history of covered commodities, including upland cotton, during the 2009 through 2016 crop years, all generic base acres shall be converted to unassigned generic base acres for which no benefits may be available.

If a farm owner is unable to allocate generic base acres during the allocation period, the generic base acres will be deemed to be allocated to seed cotton base under the provisions in Option 1.