Approaching the ARC-CO Payment Cliff?

At the end of October the USDA provided a Halloween treat by making ARC-CO payments for several 2014 crops. In fact, USDA reported that 800,000 farms received ARC-CO payments.  The 2014 ARC-CO payments totaled $3.9 billion with the vast majority ($3.3 billion) paid on corn base. This wasn’t surprising as the ARC-CO program was very popular with corn and soybean farmers, with over 90% of farms and base acres enrolled in the program.

As we discussed in an earlier post, government support has played a key role in moderating the impact of farm income downturns. However, the payments provided under this farm bill will almost certainly be less than that in previous periods of low income. Further, given the structure of the ARC-CO program it is quite likely that program payments for corn will begin to fall after the 2015 payments. (more…)