The Farm Service Agency provided a letter to land owners and operators about August 1, 2014, which contained current program or Counter-cyclical yield data, along with historical base acres for 2008 to 2012. If the document cannot be found, ask the FSA office for a duplicate.

County yields can be found in the Quickstats section of the website for the National Agricultural Statistics Service: http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/

Since a flex lease give you part of the risk of production, you and your tenants will be involved in all of the decisions, including whether to update yields, whether to reallocate base acres, and which farm program to choose for the acreage. Your decisions must be unanimous for each FSA farm.

When CRP acreage is released by the FSA, program yields will be reassigned as they were prior to entry into the CRP program.

The owner of the land likely has more tenure than a tenant operator. Congress specified the owner would manage the base acre reallocation decision and the yield updating due to ownership of the asset that produces those numbers. Congress also specified that the farm program decision should be made by the person who has production risk, which is typically the operator, but can be both an owner and operator.

Both the program or Counter-cyclical yield and base acres are used in calculating payments. It is important to update yields and consider reallocation of base acres if that is of benefit to maximize your payment.

When CRP acreage is released by the FSA, base acres will be reassigned as they were prior to entry into the CRP program.

In the base acre reallocation tool, wheat might be the planted crop.  Soybeans would be listed as the subsequent crop, reflecting a second crop on that acreage. If you had a 100 acre wheat base, and a 0 acre soybean base, the calculator reallocates the base (if desired) as 50 acres for wheat and 50 acres for soybeans. Your choice whether to reallocate depends on your expecations for more payment benefits from the wheat and soybean combination than just the wheat base.

The owner of the land likely has more tenure than a tenant operator. Congress specified the owner would manage the base acre reallocation decision and the yield updating due to ownership of the asset that produces those numbers. Congress also specified that the farm program decision should be made by the person who has production risk, which is typically the operator, but can be both an owner and operator.

While your goal may be to maximize your payment from the farm program, you might achieve that by ensuring your base acre reallocation reflects your current and future cropping plans. Ensure that you have the necessary documentation to accompany your reported crop acreage.

While your goal may be to maximize your payment from the farm program, you might achieve that by ensuring your base acre reallocation reflects your current and future cropping plans. Ensure that you have the necessary documentation to accompany your reported crop acreage.

Both the program or Counter-cyclical yield and base acres are used in calculating payments. It is important to update yields and consider reallocation of base acres if that is of benefit to maximize your payment.

It would be difficult to specifically answer without entering the data from your FSA letter into the decision aid. But a major element in the decision is what your expectations are for yields and prices in the next five years, vis-a-vis the financial needs of your farm. Your choices are likely ARC-CO or PLC.

The legislation was designed to provide risk management support to agriculture by means of a safety net. The PLC alternative has an immediate floor price per commodity. The ARC-CO support is determined by revenue, however the PLC reference prices also serve as a floor price should the ARC-CO revenue fall that far.

The PLC references prices are set by statute and become a floor price to assure a producer that program crop prices do not fall further. The ARC revenue guarantee provides a payment should prices in a given year fall below the recent average of prices. One would make a choice based on their expectation of prices and yields. The Texas A&M model gets to the same destination but takes a different route to get there.

Decisions regarding updating payment yields, reallocating base acres, and selection of a farm program remain with the land, regardless of the owner or operator. Any decisions made prior to the February 27 and March 31 deadlines in 2015 will affect any future owner or operator of that land. Future operators would receive payments based on selections made by prior operators.

You can consult any crop insurance agent for your choice of coverage for either ARC or PLC (Price Loss Coverage). Neither of those programs will serve as risk management for yield loss, and their revenue loss protection would be much less than what a revenue insurance policy might provide. The purpose of a farm program is to provide a financial safety net, and is not a crop insurance product. If your choice of program is PLC, you would be eligible to purchase a Supplimental Coverage Option (SCO) policy that covers the risk from a 14% loss to the level of coverage you typically choose for crop insurance.

Yes, any payment earned from the ARC program is made on 85% of base acres.

Your crop insurance agent may have some excellent literature. The crop insurance industry also has an educational website at: http://www.cropinsuranceinamerica.org/about-crop-insurance/#

Your crop mix should make sense for your farm, not necessarily to sign-up for an alternative in the farm program. SCO is an insurance policy that covers only that portion of the PLC program from 14% of your revenue benefit down to the level of insurance coverage you would purchase from a crop insurance agent. If you carry 85% coverage, the SCO policy would only cover 1%. If you carry 70% coverage on your crop, SCO would cover 16% of your payment.

The payment limit is $125,000 per individual. If a spouse is involved with risk management decisions on the farm, then the payment limitation would be $250,000 or $125,000 per individual.