Corn growers seek Farm Service Agency revision to risk coverage rules

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) recently approved a modification that allows farmers the option to recalculate Agriculture Risk Coverage-County Option benefits if growers were on a farm with at least one tract outside the administrative county.

This modification could have a significant impact on counties because farmers would pay for Agriculture Risk Coverage based on the administrative county where their farm records are kept.

“NCGA worked determinedly to bring this issue to the attention of FSA Administrator Val Dolcini," Steve Ebke, National Corn Growers Association public policy action team chair, said. "We greatly appreciate his consideration of our concerns and the decision to act on the information we provided."

Farms are allowed to neither change the administrative county where records are kept nor to be reconstituted retroactively. The farmers must decide to either have all base acres on their farm recalculated or stay with the current calculation in their current administrative county.

All producers who share in payment must agree to recalculate based on the physical location of the tracts and the deadline for recalculation is Feb. 1. If growers have transferred their farm records or have been impacted by the consolidation of county offices, they should contact their FSA office.