Series of Farm Bill Briefings Scheduled to Help Producers Understand New Crop Insurance Programs

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Unsure of how the new crop insurance programs in the Agricultural Act of 2014, otherwise known as the farm bill, will impact your farm operation?

Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), Farm Credit Mid-America, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency have organized a series of free briefings to help producers understand the new crop insurance programs in the legislation. The series will offer information on pertinent deadlines and policy requirements.   

The events will feature Carl Zulauf, an economist in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, which is a part of CFAES. Jon Coppess, clinical professor of law and policy at the University of Illinois, will also speak at the meetings.

“Growers and producers will find the presentation on new farm bill crop programs beneficial because in addition to providing an overview of the new programs, it will also focus on considerations that farmers will want to make as they decide how to move forward with their farm program decisions,” Zulauf said.

The safety net program in the most recent farm bill requires agricultural producers to choose among three programs, the Agriculture Risk Coverage county level (ARC-CO) program, the Agriculture Risk Coverage individual farm program (ARC-IC), and the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program. The ARC programs replace the Average Crop Revenue Enhancement Program (ACRE) while PLC replaces the price counter-cyclical program.

The USDA has not announced when producers will be able to enroll in the programs, nor some of the rules that will apply to the programs, Zulauf said.

“In what currently looks like a low price/low revenue year, payments by these two programs could be important for the financial health of the farm,” he said. “After a number of years of high revenue and prices, farmers are in the process of rediscovering that the farm safety net involves commodity programs as well as crop insurance.”

The meetings are scheduled for:

• Aug. 18, 1 p.m., at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center Fisher Auditorium, 1680 Madison Avenue, in Wooster. The center is the research arm of CFAES.

• Aug. 19, 9 a.m., at the George M. Smart Athletic Center, Defiance College, 701 N. Clinton St., in Defiance.

• Aug. 19, 7 p.m., at the Oscar F. Boyd Cultural Arts Center, Wilmington College, College St., in Wilmington.

• Sept. 16, 2 p.m., at the Farm Science Review, Vice President's Tent, 135 State Route 38, in London. The Farm Science Review charges an admittance fee of $10 at the gate, or $7 in advance. See fsr.osu.edu/visitors/tickets for information.

Registration for the meetings can be completed online at http://go.osu.edu/summer2014farmbill.

These meetings are just a few of the farm bill-related events that will take place over the next few months that CFAES faculty and staff will participate in.

Ohio State University Extension, the outreach arm of the college, will facilitate a number of meetings around the state, including workshops on new farm bill programs at several events at this year’s Farm Science Review, held from September 16-18 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center near London, Ohio. See fsr.osu.edu for more information.