A part of the federal peanut program passed by Congress is the ARC program and the PLC program.
Farmers in the peanut area usually sign up for the PLC, price loss coverage. That means that the average price of peanuts this past year is much lower than the suggested reference price that’s the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill has a suggested price of $630 per ton.
Well, this past year, peanuts only average $470 per ton and farmers have been complaining that it’s a very low price and they’re losing money. Well they’ve announced now that they will receive a PLC payment in the month of October for last year’s low prices. The payment of $630 less $470 is a difference of $160 per ton.
That’ll be the PLC. You will not receive it at all. It’ll be based on the number of pounds located on your farm, base pounds, and you’ll get only 85% of the farm’s base acres.
The payment will be subject to sequestration of 5.7 so it’ll be cut again. The payment will be issued soon and it’ll be $160 and you’ll be only getting 85% of that. Congratulations to the farmers.
The Farm Bill is helping to pay them due to their loss last year.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.