§8717 Planting Flexibility

Summary

You may plant any crop on your farm’s base acres, but there are limits for some crops. Fruits, most vegetables (except mung beans and pulse crops), and wild rice cannot be grown on base acres unless the crop is destroyed before harvest. Crops that grow on trees or other perennials are not allowed on base acres at all. Exceptions are allowed if the USDA finds a region has a history of double-cropping, or if a farm or its producers have a past history of planting those crops. Farms allowed to plant under these exceptions will lose one acre of direct and counter-cyclical payments for each acre planted. Producers with an established planting history may plant up to their average annual planting amount from either the 1991–1995 or 1998–2001 crop years (skipping years with no plantings), but payments are still reduced one acre per acre planted. From 2009 through 2012, the USDA will run a pilot letting cucumbers, green peas, lima beans, pumpkins, snap beans, sweet corn, and tomatoes grown for processing be planted on base acres. Eligible acres by State each year are: Illinois 9,000; Indiana 9,000; Iowa 1,000; Michigan 9,000; Minnesota 34,000; Ohio 4,000; Wisconsin 9,000. To join, producers must have a contract to grow the crop for processing, agree to include it in a crop rotation for agronomic and pest control benefits, and show proof of where the crop went. Each acre planted in the pilot reduces that farm’s base acres by one acre for that crop year; the reduction ends at the crop year’s close. If base acres are recalculated while a farm is in the pilot, pilot plantings count the same as the covered crops, but the pilot does not give USDA extra authority to recalculate base acres. The USDA must periodically evaluate effects on supply and price of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, check whether fresh producers are harmed or production capacity is displaced, and report results to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees as soon as possible.