Your Seven Day Forecast

2022-11-4

Payments Issuing to Producers of 2021 Crops Triggering Safety-Net Program Payments  

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2022 – Agricultural producers can now change election and enroll in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage programs for the 2023 crop year, two key safety net programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Signup began Monday, and producers have until March 15, 2023, to enroll in these two programs. Additionally, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has started issuing payments totaling more than $255 million to producers with 2021 crops that have triggered payments through ARC or PLC.  

“It’s that time of year for produces to consider all of their risk management options, including safety-net coverage elections through Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “We recognize that market prices have generally been very good, but if the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, frequent catastrophic weather events and the Ukraine war have taught us anything, it’s that we must prepare for the unexpected. It’s through programs like ARC and PLC that FSA can provide producers the economic support and security they need to manage market volatility and disasters.”  

2023 Elections and Enrollment   

Producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual (ARC-IC), which protects the entire farm. Although election changes for 2023 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year. Also, if a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm and makes an election change for 2023, they must sign a new contract.     

If producers do not submit their election by the March 15, 2023 deadline, their election remains the same as their 2022 election for crops on the farm.  Farm owners cannot enroll in either program unless they have a share interest in the farm.      

Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.    

Web-Based Decision Tools   

In partnership with USDA, the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University offer web-based decision tools to assist producers in making informed, educated decisions using crop data specific to their respective farming operations. Tools include:    

  • Gardner-farmdoc Payment Calculator, a tool available through the University of Illinois allows producers to estimate payments for farms and counties for ARC-CO and PLC.  
  • ARC and PLC Decision Tool, a tool available through Texas A&M that allows producers to obtain basic information regarding the decision and factors that should be taken into consideration such as future commodity prices and historic yields to estimate payments for 2022.    

2021 Payments and Contracts  

ARC and PLC payments for a given crop year are paid out the following fall to allow actual county yields and the Market Year Average prices to be finalized. This month, FSA processed payments to producers enrolled in 2021 ARC-CO, ARC-IC and PLC for covered commodities that triggered for the crop year.    

For ARC-CO, producers can view the 2021 ARC-CO Benchmark Yields and Revenues online database, for payment rates applicable to their county and each covered commodity. For PLC, payments have triggered for rapeseed and peanuts.  

For ARC-IC, producers should contact their local FSA office for additional information pertaining to 2021 payment information, which relies on producer-specific yields for the crop and farm to determine benchmark yields and actual year yields when calculating revenues.   

By the Numbers  

In 2021, producers signed nearly 1.8 million ARC or PLC contracts, and 251 million out of 273 million base acres were enrolled in the programs.  For the 2022 crop year signed contracts surpassed 1.8 million, to be paid in the fall of 2023, if a payment triggers.  

Since ARC and PLC were first authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and reauthorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, these safety-net programs have paid out more than $34.9 billion to producers of covered commodities.   

Crop Insurance Considerations   

ARC and PLC are part of a broader safety net provided by USDA, which also includes crop insurance and marketing assistance loans.    

Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC elections and enrollments can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products.    

Producers on farms with a PLC election have the option of purchasing Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider; however, producers on farms where ARC is the election are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres for that crop on that farm.    

Unlike SCO, the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is unaffected by an ARC election.  Producers may add ECO regardless of the farm program election.   

Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the stacked income protection plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres for that farm.     

More Information    

For more information on ARC and PLC, visit the ARC and PLC webpage or contact your local USDA Service Center.   

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit usda.gov.   

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

By DESTINY HERBERS, Capital News Service
 
WASHINGTON - NASA’s Artemis I test flight spacecraft is set to roll out onto launchpad 39B on Friday ahead of the targeted Nov. 14 launch date, despite a possible incoming storm system, NASA announced in a media briefing on Thursday.

The launch was previously delayed by Hurricane Ian in late September, NASA communications official Rachel Kraft said. The Orion spacecraft had to be moved back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida due to the storm.

“Since rolling back to the VAB for Hurricane Ian, the team has been hard at work, work has gone smoothly, and we’ve been able to protect the rocket from the hurricane,” said Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager of the Exploration Ground Systems Program.

The Artemis I test flight is an uncrewed mission that will travel beyond the Moon and back to Earth to test propulsion and controls on the Space Launch System rocket and the next-generation Orion crew module.

“There’s challenges that come with this complex of a vehicle, and where we’re flying, and how we’re getting there,” Jim Free, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said.

Meteorologists at NASA are monitoring the development of an area of low pressure near Puerto Rico that will slowly move toward Florida over the weekend, potentially impacting the Artemis I mission.

“There’s still a lot of inconsistencies on exactly where that may end up, and whether or not it does acquire significant tropical characteristics to even become a named storm,” Mark Burger, launch weather meteorologist, said.

NASA officials told reporters on a media call that they had decided to move forward with the rollout Thursday night, after assessing the storm’s possible impact on the rocket.

The team anticipates the highest impacts from the system on Monday and into Tuesday, which may include rain squalls with wind gusts of 35-40 knots, but those conditions would be well within NASA’s limits for the spacecraft’s exposure to weather, Burger said.

“We’re confident in the decision process that went into that, we talked about a lot of the same things we talked about with the hurricane,” Free said. “Certainly the wind force is not the same and the duration is not the same… so our engineering team said it was an okay risk to go out tonight.”

NASA's Nov. 14 launch has a liftoff planned in a 69-minute window that begins at 12:07 a.m. EST that day, Kraft said.

There are two backup dates in the November launch window, Free said: Nov. 16 at 1:04 a.m. and Nov. 19 at 1:45 a.m.

Teams have a preference for launching in the daylight, but it is not a requirement, Free said.

Daylight launch options are restricted through the end of the year because the Federal Aviation Administration regulates holiday air space.

The downside of night time launches, Free said, is a loss of visuals, but the “big fire shooting out the back” of the rocket will help light up the launchpad.

“Everybody asks, ‘Are you confident in going after a launch attempt?’ If we weren’t confident, we wouldn’t roll out. If we weren’t confident, we wouldn’t start the countdown when we do. So yeah, we’re confident moving forward,” Free said.

The Artemis I mission will send the unmanned Orion and a service module provided by the European Space Agency out to the Moon and into an orbit about 60 miles above the Moon’s service. The spacecraft will orbit the Moon for weeks, then return to Earth.

The mission is slated to cover more than 1 million miles, with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean set for Dec. 9.

The Artemis I will be the opening of a series of space flights aimed at eventually establishing a long-term presence at the Moon.