Those looking to participate in the average crop revenue election (ACRE) program, the USDA just announced criteria for participation.
ACRE is an optional safety net program that protects both price and production losses on a commodity-by-commodity basis. The deadline for the program Aug. 14.
According to the Illinois Farm Bureau:
Growers are eligible for revenue coverage equaling 90 percent of the product of a two-year national average program guarantee price times a benchmark state yield that factors average yield per planted acre of each commodity over a five-year period, dropping the high and low yields.
USDA will use yield data from the past five crop years, Illinois Farm Bureau risk management specialist Doug Yoder reported 2009 applicants thus will need production records from 2004 through 2008.
Here’s other tips on proving yields for ACRE:
• In the absence of complete documentation over that period, producers may submit 95 percent of their county average substitute yield.
• Acceptable production evidence includes crop insurance or non-insured crop disaster assistance loss records or actual yield data, commercial receipts, elevator or warehouse settlement sheets, load summaries, and market loan or loan deficiency program records.
• In cases in which the grain was fed, FSA will accept truck scale tickets, or contemporaneous diaries recorded at the time of crop harvest or use. Producers can use individual yields moving backward in their history until they reach a break in continuity. For example, a grower may have corn yield documentation for 2008, 2007, and 2006 but no records for 2005. At that point, he must submit the county plug yield for 2005 and 2004, even if 2004 production evidence is available
• If a producer did not plant corn for one of the five seasons or sustained a federally declared failed crop, that does not constitute a continuity break, Yoder emphasized. Growers may use the county yields even when individual yields are available, if the county yield for a given year is higher. But once a producer opts to use the county yield for an individual season, he must use that plug-in yield for all previous seasons. FSA will drop high and low yields to calculate the producers final five-year average.
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