WASHINGTON, D.C. — USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) recently approved a modification allowing growers on a farm with one or more tracts outside the administrative county the option to recalculate Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC)-County benefits based on the farm’s physical location.

According to the National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA), this decision follows an extensive review of the potential impacts of the previous requirement that payments for the ARC program be based on the administrative county where farm records are maintained.

“NCGA worked determinedly to bring this issue to the attention of FSA Administrator Val Dolcini. We greatly appreciate his consideration of our concerns and the decision to act on the information we provided,” said NCGA Public Policy Action Team Chair Steve Ebke.

NCGA said according to the FSA administrator’s office, the payments for farms enrolled in 2014 and 2015 “would be recalculated in each physical location and summed for the farm using weights according to the number of base acres (including attributed acres) in each county.”

Farms will not be allowed to retroactively change the administrative county or to be reconstituted. The choice for producers who may be adversely impacted is between recalculating all base acres on a farm or retaining the current calculation tied to the farm’s administrative county.  The flexibility to select and choose among different tracts or crops is not available.

In addition, a decision to recalculate based on the physical location of the tracts must be agreed upon by all producers on the farm with a share in the payment.  The deadline for requesting a recalculation is Feb. 1, 2016.

Growers who have transferred their farm records to another county office and those who have been impacted by the consolidation of county offices are encouraged to contact their FSA office for additional information.