If Landlords Can’t Agree, get new FSN by September 26, 2014

One of the requirements of the new farm bill is that all parties involved in each Farm Serial Number (FSN) must agree on whether to elect PLC or ARC.  If the parties cannot agree then no 2014 payment is allowed and the farm is automatically enrolled in PLC for 2015 through 2018.

If you have multiple landlords and want to make sure that this issue does not arise, you should consider revising your current FSN to set up new FSN for each land lord that you operate with.  This prevents one landlord holding you hostage to a PLC election when everyone else wants to elect ARC or vice versus.  If this applies to your situation, run, do not walk down to the local FSA office since they will be swamped as September 26 approaches which is the current deadline.

Paul Neiffer, CPA