ARC and PLC Update for 2014 Possible Payments
CliftonLarsonAllen Principle and Farm CPA Today Blogger Paul Neiffer gives an update on the likelihood of 2014 payments in PLC and ARC.Neiffer: “For our wheat growers in the PNW, when the original Farm Bill came out about a year ago, the assumption was that they would be looking at getting a PLC payment this year. The USDA has updated their mid-year average price for wheat and it’s going to be $6.10 and that is 60 cents higher than the $5.50 that it would have to be to get a PLC payment. So for the 2014 crop — which runs through May 31st — and we’ve sold 65 to 70 percent of the crop. There is almost absolutely no way — unless wheat drops $2 bucks a bushel — there is absolutely no way there will be a PLC payment on wheat this year. For most of our PNW growers that would elect ARC-County coverage, there will likely be there will get a payment even though the price may end up in that the $6.10 range because of the fact that we had a drought this year and some other weather issues such as the hail down in the Palouse County. Due to the fact that the yield is dropping so much, I think we are fairly certain that there will be some type of ARC payment — it may only be $10 or $20 or $30 an acre — but there is certainly the potential to have ARC-County payment this year.”