A sign up extension for DCP and ACRE

Farm and Ranch April 2, 2009 Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced an extension of the sign up deadline from June 1st to August 14th for the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program, DCP and the forthcoming Average Crop Revenue Election program, ACRE. Vilsack: "I think there is a recognition that the farm bill has a number of new programs and a number of new wrinkles to existing programs. I think there was a desire on the part of folks in the field, producers, folks in my office, that we gave folks enough time to fully understand and appreciate the various nuances and changes that have taken place in existing programs. That we gave the ACRE program at least more time to be understood so that people could make informed choices and decisions about which options would best fit their current production process. So we felt the June 1 deadline was a little tight so in an effort to respond to those concerns we decided to move it to August 15th." Sign up for ACRE is expected to start later this month. The DCP sign up has been underway. ACRE is a new safety net program authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill which provides eligible producers a state-level revenue guarantee in exchange for giving up a portion of other government support. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.