Final 2014 ARC-CO Data is Now Online
The USDA late last week posted final data for 2014 ARC-CO for most crops. There are certain crops that have not been finalized, but almost all of the major crop information has been posted. The spreadsheet provides data on the yields from 2009-2014 which is required to calculate your Olympic average yield, the actual 2014 benchmark and guarantee revenue and final 2014 county yields and reference price. The last three columns show the final county (1) actual revenue, (2) calculated formula payment rate, and (3) final 2014 payment rate. The final 2014 payment rate is a gross per base acre. You then have to reduce it to 85% and then subtract the 6.8% sequester deduction to arrive at the final payment per base acre that you will actually receive from FSA.
Remember for ARC you are paid on the lower of your formula payment rate of 10% of benchmark revenue. The counties with the highest payment rates per acre are as follows:
- Barley, three Colorado counties has a maximum payment of $75.21 per acre. Approximately 570 counties made payments, but only 200 counties paid higher than $25 per acre.
- Corn, as expected, my home county of Benton, Washington state had the highest payment at $135.42. Walla Walla County where I grew up was second at $134.90. About 100 counties paid in excess of $100 per acre (before the 15% and 6.8% reductions). About 1,000 counties had corn ARC-CO payments. The average payment was $60.71 and the mean payment was $64.54. About 1,000 counties did not receive a corn ARC payment.
- Dry Peas – Rolette county in North Dakota had the highest payment at $39.60 per acre. About 80 counties collected a payment.
- Grain Sorghum – Phelps county in Nebraska had the highest payment at $68.85 per acre. About 1,000 counties collected a payment.
- Lentils – Penbina county in North Dakota had the highest payment at $39.75 per acre. Only about 20 counties collected a payment.
- Oats – Siskiyou county in California collected the highest payment at $53.95 per acre. About 600 counties collected a payment.
- Peanuts – Kings county in California collected the highest payment at $140.83 per acre. Most peanut farmers elected PLC. About 170 counties made a payment.
- Rice (long-grain) – Lavaca county in Texas collected the highest payment at $110.31. Only about 20 counties collected a payment and four of them only collected $.13 per acre.
- Soybeans – Phelps county in Nebraska collected the highest payment at $78.53. About 650 counties collected a payment and the average payment for these counties was $31.41.
- Wheat – Jefferson county in Oregon collected the highest payment at $79.20. About 750 counties collected a payment and the average payment was about $24.00 per acre. About 1,900 counties did not collect a payment.
ARC-CO did provide some cushion to lower 2014 crop prices. However, those areas with higher yields either did not collect a payment or collected a much smaller payment. For 2015, this trend may reverse. The areas that collected a large payment in 2014 may collect a much smaller payment in 2015 due to higher yields. We will keep you posted.
Paul Neiffer, CPA
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
Comments are closed.