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Monday, July 13, 2009
01:39 PM

ACRE Decision Aids

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) recently announced that sign-up for the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) will begin April 27, 2009 and run until August 14, 2009. This new and alternate program to the Direct and Counter-cyclical Payments (DCP) was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill. Producers are allowed to sign-up for the DCP program now and can come back before August 14 and sign up for ACRE.

The ACRE program should be considered carefully as once a producer signs a farm up, that farm will be under ACRE until 2012. If a producer does not sign up, then the current DCP program remains in place. Producers sign up by FSA Farm Serial Number so some farms can be enrolled and others not. There is not enough space to go into detail on ACRE however there are several websites that have detailed information and a decision aid. I will list those below. Producers should not rush to sign up, but gather the necessary information, use the decision aids available and make an informed decision.  

What is ACRE? This information from the FSA website The ACRE alternative provides eligible producers a state-level revenue guarantee, based on the 5-year state Olympic average yield and the 2-year national average price. ACRE payments are made when both state- and farm-level triggers are met. By participating in ACRE, producers elect to forgo counter-cyclical payments, receive a 20-percent reduction in direct payments and a 30-percent reduction in loan rates. ACRE sign-up dates will be announced soon (April 27), or a producer can choose to stay with DCP. A decision to elect ACRE binds the producer to the program through the 2012 crop year, the last crop year covered by the 2008 Farm Bill.
By Chuck Danehower, Farm Management Area Specialist, University of Tennessee
 

ACRE Information, Spreadsheets & Programs

Making the ACRE Decision

Internet - Based Seminar Aug 4, 2009

Internet - Based Acre Presentation

*** How to use the Texas A&M Program
Scroll all the way down the page and click on the I Agree to start the decision aid program. I would caution you to be patience as sometimes the website is slow or at least seems slow. Before starting the decision aid program, click on and print out the Input Requirements. The ACRE program is a very involved program which uses national price averages, state yields, and on farm yields by FSA farm serial number when determining payments. This decision aid program also requires similar information. There are values available to assist you, particular with prices. From the AFPC ACRE website - The 2009-2012 planning horizon is simulated for 500 possible yield and price combinations and calculates the probability that total payments from ACRE (including reduced DP and LDP/MLG) will exceed total payments from DP, CCP and LDP/MLG over the four years and for each year. A risk chart is used to show the full range of possible payments for each program.
By Chuck Danehower, Farm Management Area Specialist, University of Tennessee