While the 2018 Farm Bill won’t be a great deal different than the last bill we worked with in 2014, the factors that led to your 2014 choices may be significantly different this time around. That means a little ‘review’ might be in order.

For starters, the same programs will be available this time around as last: Agricultural Risk Coverage at the County Level (ARC-CO) and the Individual Level (ARC-IC) as well as Price Loss Coverage (PLC). In short, the PLC is a price protection only program, with payments depending on a national commodity price, and not related to actual yields. The ARC programs offer revenue protection, using prices and yields (at the county level for ARC-CO and the whole farm level for ARC-IC). Both will have advantages/disadvantages in certain situations.

To help you evaluate the programs, the KSU Department of Agricultural Economics has dedicated a portion of their AgManager.info website to 2018 Farm Bill resources only. It can be found at: http://www.agmanager.info/ag-policy/2018-farm-bill . In addition to a paper on frequently asked questions you might have, the site also offers two spreadsheet tools that may be of value to you as you start the evaluation process.

The first is called Historical ARC/PLC Payments by County. This spreadsheet is designed to let you take a look back to see what types of payments were made and under what conditions. With the current Farm Bill essentially extending the major programs of the last one, this is a great tool to see what historically worked – and maybe what did not.

The second is named Tradeoff Between 2019/2020 ARC and PLC. As the name implies, it allows you to show where the two programs may pay – and where they may not.

A third decision spreadsheet tool is coming – but it’s not available yet. When it is available, you can find it at www.agmanager.info under the Ag Policy tab and 2018 Farm Bill.

What’s the right program? There are a lot of factors that determine that. As you start the evaluation process, check out these online tools. If you need more information on how to use them, feel free to get in touch with me via any of our District Extension Offices or via e-mail to [email protected] .