§7911 Establishment of Base Acres and Payment Acres for a Farm

Summary

Farm owners must be given one chance to pick how their farm’s base acres are figured for direct and counter‑cyclical payments. They can pick either: (A) the 4‑year average for 1998 through 2001 of acres planted to covered crops or acres they were prevented from planting by disaster, or (B) the contract acreage used to compute the fiscal year 2002 payment plus a 4‑year average (1998–2001) of eligible oilseed acres (oilseed counts are limited and can be raised by reducing contract acreage on an acre‑for‑acre basis). USDA must notify owners as soon as possible after May 13, 2002, and tell them how and when to make the one-time choice. If an owner does not choose or misses the deadline, option (B) will be used. All four years must be counted; if two crops were grown on the same acre in a year (not regular double cropping), the owner chooses which crop to count for that year. If land leaves a conservation reserve contract or is released, base acres will be adjusted and, in the first crop year after the change, the owner must choose either the farm payments for the added acres or a prorated CRP payment, not both. Payment acres equal 85 percent of base acres. If base acres plus certain enrolled acres would exceed the farm’s actual cropland, USDA will reduce base acres (the owner can pick which acres to reduce), with an exception for double‑cropped land. Owners may permanently reduce base acres at any time following USDA rules. Key terms: base acres — acres used to calculate farm payments; payment acres — 85 percent of base acres; covered commodities — the crops covered by the program; contract acreage — acreage used to compute the FY2002 payment; eligible oilseed acreage — oilseed acres counted under special limits for 1998–2001; conservation reserve contract acreage — cropland enrolled in conservation contracts.