The Agricultural Act of 2014 became law with less reliance on direct subsidy and adoption of a payment model based on price and risk coverage triggers. Daviess County landowners had an important decision which required knowledge gained through educational programming by Dr. Todd Davis’, UK Extension Grain Marketing Specialist. Through a series of meetings provided at the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service, landowners learned about the new farm bill and how to calculate price loss coverage and agricultural risk coverage options. 

This important one time decision was determined based on information provided by Dr. Davis and was used by hundreds of Daviess County landowners in their decision. As a result of educational opportunities regarding farm bill sign up provided by the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service, nearly all of Daviess County landowners chose the agricultural risk coverage. 

The information provided by Dr. Davis was critical relative to the financial solvency of Daviess County farm businesses during a period of depressed farm prices. Based on the knowledge gained through information shared by Dr. Davis at the Daviess County Extension office, payments of nearly $125 per acre have been paid out in the past three years collectively for those who chose to follow Dr. Davis’s advice and enroll in ARC-CO. This has resulted in nearly $13 million of additional net farm revenue for Daviess County farms.

During the informational meetings, Dr. Davis explained how payments in ARC-CO would be determined. He explained that if a county’s revenue for corn and soybeans in the previous year exceeded the programs guaranteed revenue which is based on a rolling olympic average and yield then no payment would be earned. This year, no payment will be made due to the high 2017 Daviess County average yields for corn and soybeans, despite the lower price. There will be a payment for wheat.