FARGO, N.D. - All North Dakota wheat base acres enrolled in the Agricultural Risk Coverage - County (ARC-CO) program should receive the maximum allowed payment rate in late 2017 for the 2016 year.
The payment rate per base acre should range from $21.44 in Williams County to $42.21 in Traill County. Payments are applied to only 85 percent of base acres, therefore the effective rate averaged over all wheat base acres would range from $18.22 in Williams County to $35.88 in Traill County.
The payments are not official because the 2016 national marketing year average wheat price and county average yields are not final, says Andy Swenson, North Dakota State University Extension Service farm management specialist.
However, the National Agricultural Statistics Service has reported spring wheat yields for 36 of the 53 North Dakota counties, he says.
In all instances, the payments would be capped at the maximum allowed. The maximum payment rate is 10 percent of the county's benchmark revenue. The benchmark revenue is the product of the Olympic averages of the previous five years of county yields and national marketing year prices.
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Overall, Swenson expects farm bill payments of nearly $350 million on North Dakota wheat base acres, after an assumed 7 percent payment reduction due to sequestration. These payments, based on the 2016 crop year, will be made sometime after Oct. 1.
Unlike wheat, producers should not expect ARC-CO payments on corn and soybean base acres. Record yields of those crops will provide revenue in excess of the ARC-CO revenue guarantee in nearly every county.
Producers can use the 2016 ARC-PLC Calculator at www.ag.ndsu.edu/farmmanagement/tools to estimate farm bill payments.
