APH Yield Exclusion to be Available on Certain 2015 Spring Crops

The RMA announced today that the APH yield exclusion will be available for most 2015 spring crops.  The APH yield exclusion allows farmers to exclude their own yields anytime the county or contiguous counties have a current yield that is less than 50% of the 10 year county yield.  For example, assume a Texas wheat farmer farms in a county which over the last 10 years has 3 years where the county yield is less than 50% of the trailing 10 year average.  This allows the farmer to throw out the yields for those three years and then divide the remaining yields by however years are left.  If there is 10 years in their normal APH calculations, you would then take the average of the remaining 7 years.

The spring crops that will be eligible for this exclusion include corn, soybeans, spring wheat, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, barley, canola, sunflowers, peanuts and popcorn.  However, there will be no change in the APH yield exclusion for fall-planted wheat, which is a disappointment for growers in Texas and Oklahoma who have been hard-hit by drought and were counting on the changes to be applicable with the winter wheat crop just planted.

As discussed in a previous post, this exclusion may not be as good as originally thought.  The USDA will announce additional program details in December, 2014.  This will include the actuarial documents that will determine how the premiums for these crops will be determined, etc.

We will keep you posted.

Paul Neiffer, CPA