Kiowa County USDA Service Center Staff

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

• CRP CONTRACT MANAGEMENT – Producers grazing CRP acreage to meet contract management requirements must remove the livestock by September 30.
• ARC-PLC ELECTION and ENROLLMENT – 2026 crop year – September 16 through December 11, 2026
• LIVESTOCK FORAGE PROGRAM - Kiowa County eligible for 5-month payment. Apply before March 1, 2027.
• FALL ACREAGE REPORTING DEADLINE - November 15, 2026 All fall seeded crops will need to be reported to crop insurance and/or FSA by the date of November 15th.
• NON-INSURED ASSISTANCE PROGRAM or NAP Sales closing date for native grass is December 1, 2026. Cost is $325.00 per producer, per crop.

VISIT Farmers.gov for more information regarding deadlines and programs available through FSA and NRCS.

OCTOBER PAYMENT CYCLE

CRP annual rental payments are set to be issued beginning Friday, October 2. Most offices will most likely not start issuing the payments until Monday, October 5th. If you have changed bank accounts, please notify the FSA office ASAP or the payment will be delayed.

2025 ARCPLC payments will be issued mid-October. For 2025, the election of either ARC-CO or PLC is irrelevant, producers will be paid on the higher of PLC or ARC-CO for the commodity.

ACREAGE REPORTING

Here in the Kiowa County FSA office, we’re going to try something new concerning acreage reporting and ARCPLC enrollment. Each operator will be assigned an employee, and the operator will work with that employee for all of crop year 2027. The employee will complete both fall and spring acreage reporting, ARCPLC election and enrollment and obtain eligibility paperwork.

If you normally report planted acres to your crop insurance agent first; please request that the agent forward that information on to the FSA office.

Fall acreage reporting deadline is November 15, 2026.

2026 ARCPLC ELECTION and ENROLLMENT

ARCPLC election and enrollment are now underway. Below are some talking points regarding 2026 and 2027 crop year. The office will most likely complete a multi-year contract, that will reduce the workload for the office in future years. If an operator enrolls into a multi-year contract, that operator can change the election during the applicable crop year election and enrollment process.

2026 – Sept. 16 through Dec. 11, 2026

2027– Nov. 2, 2026, through March 15, 2027

Producers have the option to sign a new multi-year contract for 2026 through 2031.

Review the talking points below.

ARCPLC and base allocation

• Agricultural producers can begin enrolling in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently updated to include more than 30 million new base acres.  
• This expansion, the first in 20 years, was made possible by the Working Families Tax Cuts Act and is part of USDA’s efforts to put Farmers First.  
• Now that the base allocation process is complete, producers can make ARCPLC elections and enroll for the 2026 crop year from Sept. 16 through Dec. 11, 2026, and for the 2027 crop year from Nov. 2, 2026, through March 15, 2027.  Producers can enroll into:
• ARC-CO, based on county yield data for the commodity.
• PLC or Price Loss Coverage, based on national price for the commodity.
• Payments are based on 85% of the crop base on the farm. Producers can select ARC-CO or PLC on any commodity that has base acres on the farm.
• ARC-IC, Individual Coverage, looks at the combined revenue of all covered commodities planted across your entire enrolled farm. Payments are issued on 65% of the total base acres on the farm.
• Because eligible acres exceeded the nationwide 30-million-acre cap, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is applying an across-the-board, prorated reduction of 3.69% to all newly allocated base acres.  
• Producers can now change their election and enroll in ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which both provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual (ARC-IC), which protects the entire farm.  
• Although election changes for 2026 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year.  
• Existing multi-year contracts ended in 2025, but producers have the option to sign a new multi-year contract for 2026 through 2031.  
• Producers who opt out of a multi-year contract can enroll for the 2027 crop year starting Nov. 2, 2026, through March 15, 2027. 
• If producers do not submit their 2026 election by Dec. 11, 2026, their election remains the same as their 2025 election for crops on the farm, and the farm is ineligible for payments for the 2026 program year.  
• Landowners cannot enroll in either program unless they have a share interest in the farm.  
• Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.    

Base Allocation Notifications 

• The opportunity for landowners to review their base allocation summaries and take necessary action ended Aug. 31, 2026.  
• This included correcting inaccurate information, designating subsequent acres or opting out of adding base acres.  
• Landowners did not lose base acres through the base allocation process. 
• If landowners did not notify FSA of changes, the base allocation summary is considered accurate and complete; however, an across-the-board factor will apply. 
• FSA determined the base allocation percentage reduction using all acreage reported as eligible, and new base acres will automatically be allocated to farms after applying the 3.69% reduction.   
• Base allocation notifications will be available beginning Sept. 16, 2026.  
• Landowners can access notifications online at fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc using a Login.gov account.  
• Landowners who do not currently have a Login.gov account can contact their FSA county office to obtain their base allocation notification beginning Sept. 16, 2026.    

 Crop Insurance Considerations  

• Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC election and enrollment can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products.   
• Producers can now add SCO coverage or the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) regardless of their ARC or PLC election.  
• Previously, producers who elected ARC-CO or ARC-IC were ineligible to purchase the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider for the same acres, but The Working Families Tax Cuts Act removed this restriction.  
• Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres for that farm.    

Crop insurance information is available through USDA’s Risk Management Agency.

DROUGHT MONITOR

The red in Kiowa County is gone off the drought monitor. Hopefully, with the predicted moisture for this week, the color will be yellow or white in a couple of weeks

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