ARC and PLC Update for 2014 Possible Payments

CliftonLarsonAllen Principle and Farm CPA Today Blogger Paul Neiffer gives an update on the likelihood of 2014 payments in PLC and ARC.
Neiffer: “For our wheat growers in the PNW, when the original Farm Bill came out about a year ago, the assumption was that they would be looking at getting a PLC payment this year. The USDA has updated their mid-year average price for wheat and it’s going to be $6.10 and that is 60 cents higher than the $5.50 that it would have to be to get a PLC payment. So for the 2014 crop — which runs through May 31st — and we’ve sold 65 to 70 percent of the crop. There is almost absolutely no way — unless wheat drops $2 bucks a bushel — there is absolutely no way there will be a PLC payment on wheat this year. For most of our PNW growers that would elect ARC-County coverage, there will likely be there will get a payment even though the price may end up in that the $6.10 range because of the fact that we had a drought this year and some other weather issues such as the hail down in the Palouse County. Due to the fact that the yield is dropping so much, I think we are fairly certain that there will be some type of ARC payment — it may only be $10 or $20 or $30 an acre — but there is certainly the potential to have ARC-County payment this year.”