The US Department of Agriculture has formally announced the first expansion of base acres for farm-programme enrolment in 20 years, adding more than 30 million new base acres under the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. Because eligible acres exceeded the nationwide 30-million-acre cap, the Farm Service Agency is applying an across-the-board prorated reduction of 3.69 percent to all newly allocated base acres, USDA Under Secretary Richard Fordyce said.

With the allocation complete, producers can make elections and enrol for the 2026 crop year from 16 September to 11 December 2026, and for 2027 from 2 November 2026 to 15 March 2027. "In addition to expanded base acres, farmers now also have the opportunity to change their program election to best support the economic viability of their operations," Fordyce said. Landowners' window to review allocation summaries closed on 31 August; nobody lost base acres in the process, and summaries not challenged are treated as accurate with the 3.69 percent factor applied. Notifications are available at fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc with a Login.gov account or from county offices.

Producers may now switch between ARC-County and PLC, which protect crop by crop, and ARC-Individual, which covers the whole farm. Election changes for 2026 are optional but enrolment requires a signed contract every year; the multi-year contracts that ended in 2025 can be replaced by a new one running 2026 to 2031. A producer who does not submit a 2026 election by 11 December keeps the 2025 election and is ineligible for 2026 payments. Covered commodities include barley, canola, chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, sorghum, lentils, mustard, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, soybeans, sunflower and wheat.

The act also removed the rule that barred ARC-CO and ARC-IC electors from buying the Supplemental Coverage Option, so producers can now add SCO or the Enhanced Coverage Option whatever their election, though ARC and PLC choices can still affect eligibility for some crop-insurance products. The report is Michigan Farm Bureau's, from USDA's announcement.

Photo: Jake was here / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: Michigan Farm News