Farm Safety Net Changes Could Lead To Higher ARC and PLC Payments This Year

By Jared White

Brownfield

The vice president of farm services with NAU Country Insurance says changes to the farm safety net program likely mean more payments coming to farmers later this year.

Rich Morrison says the One Big Beautiful Bill Act brought needed updates to the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs.  

“We saw the PLC reference prices increased.”  He says, “We take 88% of the ARC benchmark now as well. The producer gets the higher of the two for the PLC program. So, this year we’re almost guaranteed to get some PLC money based on where the markets are trading right now.”

He tells Brownfield, “So the PLC program, instead of using $4.10, we’re going to use $4.42, which right now would mean you’d get $0.42 a bushel.”  He says, “My math is that might be 60 to 70 dollars an acre.”

Morrison says the final figures will be set at the end of the marketing year in August, with any potential payments reaching producers in October.