FSA sets Aug. 31 cutoff to correct new base acre summaries; disaster and specialty crop aid close sooner

Thirty million acres is the most new base that USDA can add to the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, and landowners have until August 31 to check the numbers it will use^{[1, 3]}. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) put that date at the end of a July 27 reminder that also lists two earlier cutoffs: August 7 for the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) program and August 12 for the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP)^[1].

The base acre review touches row-crop landowners whose recent plantings have outgrown the base on their farms. FSA calls it the first chance to add base since 2002^{[1, 2]}.

The details: who gets new base and how it is counted

The authority comes from section 10302 of Pub. L. 119-21, the 2025 reconciliation law that USDA calls the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, signed July 4, 2025^{[2, 3]}. It adds a new subsection (e) to the base acre section of the Agricultural Act of 2014 and directs USDA to allocate “not more than an additional 30,000,000 base acres” to eligible farms, beginning with the 2026 crop year^[3]. Existing base is not touched^[6].

The eligibility test compares two numbers for each farm^[3]:

• Recent history. The 2019-2023 average of acres planted or prevented from planting to covered commodities, plus the lesser of 15% of the farm’s total acres or its five-year average of eligible noncovered crops.
• Current base. The farm’s covered-commodity base as of September 30, 2024, leaving out unassigned crop base.

If the first number is larger, the farm qualifies. A farm with no covered-commodity plantings in the five years gets nothing, and years without a covered crop still count as zero in the average rather than being dropped^[3]. Total base cannot exceed the acres on the farm^{[2, 3]}.

New base is spread across the covered commodities the farm actually grew from 2019 to 2023, in proportion to each crop’s share of the farm’s average covered plantings^[4]. Where a field was planted to one covered crop and then replanted to another in the same year, outside an established double-crop practice, the owner picks which crop counts but cannot count both^{[3, 6]}. For PLC, new base carries the farm’s existing payment yield for that crop, or the county average where the farm has none^[3]. A farm that changed hands after 2023 is judged on the prior owner’s planting history^[3].

FSA began mailing notices on June 1 that Base Allocation Summaries were ready, and landowners with a Login.gov account can view them at fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc^[2]. Those without one go through the county office^{[1, 2]}.

What happens if a landowner does nothing by Aug. 31?

The summary stands. Yangxuan Liu, an agricultural economist at the University of Georgia, wrote on July 24 that eligible acres are allocated automatically when the summary is right, and that if FSA is not notified by the deadline, “the information on the Base Allocation Summary will be considered accurate and complete”^[5]. Corrections, appeals of an ineligibility finding and changes to subsequent-crop acres all have to reach the county office before August 31^[5].

Liu lists what to compare against farm records: planted, prevented-planted, failed, double-cropped and subsequent acres for each year, plus acres in noncovered crops^[5]. FSA’s May 27 announcement told landowners to talk to their operators early, because tenants often keep the planting records^[2].

The law also gives an owner the right to refuse. An owner “may elect to not receive that allocation” by notifying USDA within 90 days of receiving the notice^[3].

In the field: Plains and Midwest gain the most acres, the South the most dollars per acre

The summaries show potential acres, not final ones^[5]. If eligible acres nationwide exceed 30 million, the law requires “an across-the-board, pro-rata reduction” so the total equals the cap^[3].

Economists Carl Zulauf, Gary Schnitkey and Nick Paulson ran the numbers in July 2025, before FSA had set procedures. Their indicator found about 38.7 million acres of potential new base, which would put the proration factor near 77.5%^[4]. Texas, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas accounted for about 38% of that indicated base, and Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio and Illinois for another 23%^[4]. Missouri showed the largest increase relative to existing base among the top 10 states, at 16%, against 6% for Iowa and 5% for Illinois^[4]. Montana and New Mexico showed none at the state level, though individual farms there may still gain^[4]. The authors called their figures an indicator, not an estimate, because FSA had yet to answer how hay, sugar crops, tobacco and cotton base would be treated^[4].

Acres are only half the picture. Over 2014-2023, ARC and PLC paid roughly $108 per base acre a year for peanuts and $85 for long-grain rice, against about $14 for corn and $5 for soybeans^[4]. A few hundred new acres of peanut or rice base can be worth more than a much larger corn addition.

The same law raised the statutory reference prices from the 2025 crop on, to $4.10 per bushel for corn, $10.00 for soybeans, $6.35 for wheat, $630 per ton for peanuts, $16.90 per hundredweight for long-grain and medium-grain rice and $0.42 per pound for seed cotton^[3]. It also raised the percentage used in the effective reference price calculation from 85% to 88%^[3]. Every new base acre is paid against those levels.

Cotton and peanut country. Unassigned base left over from earlier cotton policy changes is converted first, outside the 30 million acre cap, and is not prorated^{[5, 6]}. Liu still advises cotton and peanut growers to confirm with their county office how their crops are handled^[5].

Landlords and tenants. The notice goes to the owner and the base attaches to the farm, so the decision sits with the landlord even where a tenant holds the records^{[2, 3]}. Liu cautions that “Although base acres do not guarantee income,” the addition may still carry economic value^[5].

The two deadlines that come first

ASCF, Aug. 7. The $1.625 billion program pays specialty crop growers per acre of 2025 crops reported to FSA by April 24, 2026^[7]. The rates are tiered by a crop’s average annual revenue per acre^[7]:

• Tier 1, more than $10,000 an acre in revenue: $650 per acre
• Tier 2, over $2,300 and up to $10,000: $225 per acre
• Tier 3, up to $2,300: $65 per acre
• Beans and peas not eligible for the Farmer Bridge Assistance program: $25 per acre

The payment limit is $250,000. Producers who filed 2025 acreage reports have pre-filled applications, online through Login.gov or from the county office^{[1, 7]}. Cover crop, grazing, silage and prevented-planted acres do not count, and controlled-environment crops other than mushrooms are excluded^[7].

SDRP, Aug. 12. Stage 1 pays producers whose 2023 or 2024 disaster losses drew a crop insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program indemnity. Stage 2 covers shallow, uninsured and quality losses that Stage 1 missed^{[1, 8]}. USDA pushed both deadlines from April 30 to August 12 and doubled the payment factor from 35% to 70%, sending approved applicants another 35% of their calculated payment^[8]. Drought losses count only where the county reached D2 for eight consecutive weeks or D3 or worse^[8]. Producers with losses on land in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts are covered by state block grants instead^[8].

“These deadlines represent real opportunities for producers to recover from market and weather challenges,” FSA Administrator Bill Beam said in the July 27 release^[1].

On the Hill

None of these steps needs a vote. The base acre expansion, the higher reference prices and the 2023-2024 disaster money were all settled by law before this summer, and FSA is carrying out what Congress wrote^{[3, 8]}. The reconciliation law’s disaster and loan changes reached the regulations earlier this month in a separate final rule on forage aid and cotton loans. Southern Ag Today’s Bart Fischer and Joe Outlaw called the base change “a significant change from previous law”^[6].

What remains for USDA is the arithmetic. It has not said how many eligible acres the summaries add up to, so the proration factor is unknown^{[1, 2]}.

What to watch

• Aug. 3: last day to nominate candidates for FSA county committees. Ballots go out in November^[1].
• Aug. 7: ASCF applications close^{[1, 7]}.
• Aug. 12: SDRP Stage 1 and Stage 2 applications close^{[1, 8]}.
• Aug. 31: Base Allocation Summary corrections, appeals and subsequent-crop changes due^{[1, 2, 5]}.

After August 31, the open question is the national total. If eligible acres come in near the 38.7 million indicator, every summary shrinks by a little more than a fifth^[4].