The New Farm Bill Offers Many Options Requiring Careful Decisions
April 11, 2014 Congratulations, cotton growers! You now have a shiny, new farm bill, forged over nearly three years of debate, deliberation and a dash of partisan politics.
In essence, there’s something new for everyone and for every crop. Direct payments, counter-cyclical payments and the ACRE program are history. There’s a greater emphasis on risk management and crop insurance. And there’s a whole new list of programs that growers need to examine closely to determine the best fit for their farming operation.
Wading Through the Options
“This bill is very detailed and there are a lot of complicated decisions to make,” said Dr. Joe Outlaw, professor and Extension economist with Texas A&M University and co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC). “The information we have today is based on initial interpretations of the bill, plus discussions and indications on how USDA will implement it.”
For most crops but cotton, producers will choose between the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) program or Price Loss Coverage (PLC). Both programs will cover income losses based on program guidelines, and both allow growers the option of a one-time reallocation of base acres to crops that were planted on their farm between the 2009 and 2012 crop years – with the exception of cotton.
“When sign-up opens at FSA offices, growers need to decide if they want to reallocate their base acres or not, and if they want their non-cotton acres to be protected through ARC or PLC,” explained Outlaw.
“With ARC, they have a choice between a county program based on the experience an entire county has had or an individual program based on individual farm results.”
Growers will need to make decisions on a crop-by-crop basis for each farm, unless they choose the individual ARC option which covers all crops on that farm. If no decisions are made for the 2014 crop, the farm would automatically be enrolled in PLC for the 2015 crop and beyond.
ARC payments will be based on benchmarks calculated by the five-year average of market prices and average county yields, with different calculations used for irrigated and non-irrigated crops. PLC pays on 85 percent of base acres. Payments, however, will be limited to a total of $125,000 per person for all programs combined.
What About Cotton?
The new farm bill removes cotton from all Title I programs and establishes a new crop insurance safety net for cotton growers. It maintains and/or modifies several existing programs like the Upland cotton marketing loan, the ELS cotton loan and competitiveness programs and the Economic Adjustment Assistance Program (EEAP) for the domestic textile industry. And, it designates all cotton base acres as of September 30, 2013, as generic base for planning purposes.
The Stacked Income Protection Plan – or STAX – becomes the centerpiece of the new cotton program. It’s a new revenue insurance product available for purchase on all Upland cotton acres beginning in 2015.
“With cotton moving to more reliance on insurance and, because of the late passage of the Farm Bill and the implementation timeline for crop insurance products, the 2014 crop becomes a transition year for cotton,” said Dr. Gary Adams, vice president, Economics and Policy Analysis with the National Cotton Council. “This year, growers can receive a payment equivalent to 5.4 cents per pound on all 2013 base acres and the direct payment yield.
“There is also a provision to extend this transition into 2015, at a reduced rate, for growers in a county where STAX will not be available.”
Adams points out that the transition payment is paid on 2013 base and is subject to a limit of $40,000 per legal entity. This payment is separate from the $125,000 limit for other programs impacting other crops, and eligibility is not affected by other program choices or planting decisions made this year.
In 2015, STAX will offer cotton growers several options for coverage. It can be purchased as the only insurance policy covering an acre, or it can be purchased in addition to existing insurance policies. It will be based on actual county income relative to an expected income and is designed to cover a range from 90 percent down to 70 percent of expected county income.
“Indemnities under STAX are triggered by the revenue experience at the county level or a combination of counties, if needed, to get an actuarially-sound product,” explained Adams. “It is not based on individual experience. It is the collection of individuals in a county and that revenue experience.
“There’s a 10 percent deductible if you purchase STAX at its maximum,” he continued. “If the county actual income comes in above 90 percent, there’s no STAX indemnity. If it comes in anywhere between 90 and 70 percent, an indemnity is triggered. And if county income falls below 70 percent, then the STAX indemnity is at its maximum level.”
STAX will carry a premium subsidy of 80 percent, with producers paying the remaining 20 percent. However, the lower band of STAX coverage cannot overlap the coverage level of an underlying insurance policy on that same acre, so growers will need to make decisions about balancing their insurance coverages.
“STAX will be offered for irrigated and non-irrigated acres to the greatest extent possible,” added Adams. “And there will be some new features and options that we’ll learn about as we go further into the year that will allow producers to scale their indemnity up or down depending on how much of the protection factor they purchase.”
Also coming in 2015 is the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), which will be available for Upland cotton and other commodities such as corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice. SCO requires underlying insurance coverage and helps provides coverage for a portion of that policy. However, it cannot be purchased on acres covered by STAX or for commodities covered under ARC.
While STAX coverage is based on revenue experience, SCO indemnities can be triggered by either county yield or revenue experience. “There are some similarities in the concepts,” said Adams. “There are some differences, though, in the details.”
Keep In Mind
With all of the new insurance products and programs coming for all crops, both Outlaw and Adams remind growers to keep a couple of things in mind as they begin sifting and sorting through all of the options.
First, the new Farm Bill now requires growers to have a conservation compliance program in place in order to be eligible for any insurance premium subsidy.
And second, don’t be shy about asking for help. Education for this Farm Bill is going to be a continuing process, since final rules and provisions are still being determined.
Investigate online decision tools like the one being developed by Texas A&M, AFPC and the University of Missouri. Seek out your FSA officials for answers as soon as they have the information in hand. And ask your insurance agent about all of the options and the right type of coverage for your operation.
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