USDA’s Farm Service Agency will have far less money to implement the 2018 Farm Bill than they did in 2014. FSA Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs Bill Beam says they will be looking for more money to help with the roll out as the budget will be tight.
One big change that will require a software rewrite is the agency will use RMA data to figure ARC County yields instead of the NASS data that was previously used. However, Beam says that won’t totally solve the disparity in payments from county to county seen in the past with the program.
Beam says eventually farmers will also be able to roll back and forth between ARC and PLC, unlike the 2014 farm bill where farmers were locked in for five years.
He says Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue has also announced the signup for the Dairy Margin Coverage will be June 17 with payments issued shortly after that. The Livestock Disaster programs saw virtually no change.
