Free Farm Bill information series continues through Dec. 11

“We want to remind folks that there is still time to come out to one of the meetings,” said Bill Thompson, AgriLife Extension economist, San Angelo. “We also want to remind folks to check the schedule for any changes as we have had a change of venue for the Jones County meeting.”

The focus of the meetings will be on updating program yields and choosing between Agricultural Risk Coverage, ARC, and Price Loss Coverage, PLC.

“There has been a lot of great discussion at the workshops we’ve had so far,” Thompson said. “The sometimes-disappointing dryland cotton yields across the region this fall and the trade war affected price levels, which have made the ARC vs. PLC discussion with producers pretty interesting. I think producers have a good idea of what they want to do, but these sessions give them an opportunity to put some numbers to these important decisions.”

Both the ARC and PLC programs have been revised from the 2014 bill. Those changes will be discussed, and the online decision aid developed by the Texas A&M University Agriculture and Food Policy Center, AFPC, will be demonstrated.

“There are lots of moving parts to these safety-net programs, and the decision aid does a great job of condensing those variables down to some bottom-line results and probabilities,” Thompson said. “This is a valuable online tool that can give a range of probable dollar figures, once producers know how to properly use it.”

Thompson will also review the conservation titles, administrative adjustments to reference prices, commodity loan rates and payment limits.

The remaining dates and locations are as follows:

Nov. 26, G.C. Broughton Ag Complex, 2411 Echols Drive, Big Spring.

Dec. 3, Jones County Activity Center, 1108 W. Court Plaza, 402 2nd St., Anson.

Dec. 4, San Saba Civic Center at Mill Pond Park, 110 Thomas Stewart Drive, San Saba.

Dec. 5, AgriLife Extension office of Glasscock County, 17 Myrl St., Garden City.

Dec. 10, AgriLife Extension office of Runnels County, 608 Sealy Ave., Ballinger.

Dec. 11, Melvin Community Center, 101 N. Melton Ave., Melvin.

For questions or additional information, contact your local AgriLife Extension office or Thompson at 325-653-4576.