Farm groups, including the Minnesota Farmers Union, are supporting legislation introduced this week by Senators Joni Ernst of Iowa and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota that would tweak the ARC County program. The bill would shift the data used for ARC County and change how payments are determined based on where a farm is physically located. Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish says it’s good the measure calls for using RMA data rather than NASS data in their yield calculations.
The legislation also would give FSA county committees more discretion to adjust yield data on the ARC County Program. Wertish says that’s a good provision and makes sense.
Wertish says although the Ag Committees are in initial stages of writing the new farm bill, he’s hoping they’ll move quickly with the legislation.
The American Soybean Association also supports the measure and ASA President Ron Moore says the ARC County Improvement Act is one of the best ways to provide support against declines in farm revenue.
