If you signed up for the ACRE program, you know that payments will be issued when two conditions are met for a commodity. Condition one: when actual state revenue falls below the state ACRE guarantee. Condition two: when the actual farm revenue falls below the farm ACRE guarantee.
Yield and moisture map
So, can you use your yield monitor to provide annual acreage and production reports? Currently, no you cannot legally use your yield monitor and GPS-based yield/moisture map as proof of actual farm yield, because USDA-FSA have not recognized this technology as verifiable. Current rules are outlined in this 23-page USDA-FSA Notice DCP-215 document “Production Evidence for the ACRE Program.”
State FSA offices continue to work with Washington on changes to these rules. However, as more farmers provide yield maps—backed up with verifiable scale tickets to match that field—perhaps the FSA will begin to understand the validity of this technology.
To be eligible for ACRE payments, owners, operators, landlords, tenants, or sharecroppers must:
• have base acres on the farm;
• share in the risk of producing a crop on base acres on a farm enrolled in ACRE;
• annually report the use of the farm’s cropland acreage and submit production reports;
• comply with conservation and wetland protection requirements on all of their land;
• comply with planting flexibility requirements;
• use the base acres for agricultural or related activities; and
• protect all base acres from erosion, including providing sufficient cover as determined necessary by the county FSA committee, and control weeds.
Links to more information:
Official USDA-FSA Production Evidence document for ACRE Program (June 2009)
Check out AgWeb discussion board comments on ACRE program.
Texas A&M ACRE Info Page
USDA-FSA ACRE Website
ACRE Backgrounder
ACRE Will Likely Pay More Than the Traditional Alternative for Receiving Farm Commodity Payments, University of Illinois
Understanding ACRE: Its Revenue Guarantee, Ohio State University
Iowa State University ACRE Resources