Be Careful What You Wish For!

Chris Clayton of DTN Progressive Farmer just did a post on their website regarding possible lawsuits for those counties where no ARC-CO payments were made for the 2014 crop year.  The attorney’s are complaining that the FSA did not follow the directions of the Farm Bill when it came to determining crop yields for each county.

They believe that by suing the FSA, they may be able to get the FSA to go back and recalculate the yields for those counties to get an ARC-CO payment for those farmers.  However, they need to be careful what they wish for.  What prevents the FSA (if they lose the lawsuit) to go back and recalculate the yields for all of the counties in that area and perhaps grant ARC-CO to those counties where no or low payment were made and then adjust the other county’s yields downward to offset the payments to those other counties.  In that case, other farmers may end up owing more than the FSA has to pay out.

Remember, if the FSA loses the lawsuit, then it is open season on how all county yield calculations are made.  Sometimes, you need to be careful for what you wish for, since the end result may not be what you want.

Paul Neiffer, CPA