If you own or farm cropland with base acres, for example wheat, grain sorghum, corn, peanuts or seed cotton, two Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs act as a safety net against low prices or low revenue:
- PLC (Price Loss Coverage) pays when the national marketing-year average price for a crop falls below its effective reference price.
- ARC (Agriculture Risk Coverage) pays when revenue falls below a guarantee. ARC-County (ARC-CO) is based on county revenue for each crop. ARC-Individual (ARC-IC) is based on the whole farm.
Payments go on base acres, the farm's historical acres on record with FSA. They are not tied to what you plant this year.
Key 2026 and 2027 dates
- 2026 crop year: elect and enroll Sept. 16 through Dec. 11, 2026.
- 2027 crop year: Nov. 2, 2026 through March 15, 2027.
- You must sign an enrollment contract every year, unless you sign up for a multi-year contract. The old multi-year contracts ended with 2025. You can now sign a new one for 2026 through 2031.
- If you miss Dec. 11, 2026: your crop elections stay the same as 2025, but the farm gets no ARC/PLC payment for 2026.
New base acres
The Working Families Tax Cuts Act (also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) let USDA add up to 30 million new base acres nationwide. More acres qualified than that, so FSA applied a 3.69% across-the-board reduction to newly allocated base acres. Landowners can see their base allocation notice at fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc with a Login.gov account, or by asking the county office.
2026 effective reference prices (selected)
From FSA's table dated Jan. 14, 2026:
| Crop | 2026 effective reference price |
|---|---|
| Wheat | $6.35 / bu |
| Grain sorghum | $4.67 / bu |
| Corn | $4.42 / bu |
| Soybeans | $10.71 / bu |
| Oats | $3.05 / bu |
| Peanuts | $0.3150 / lb |
| Seed cotton | $0.4200 / lb |
Crop insurance tie-in
Starting now, you can buy SCO (the Supplemental Coverage Option) or ECO (the Enhanced Coverage Option) on your crop insurance no matter whether you choose ARC or PLC. Before, ARC acres couldn't carry SCO.
Upland cotton growers who enroll seed cotton base in ARC or PLC can't use the cotton income insurance plan called STAX (the Stacked Income Protection Plan) on those planted acres.
What to do next
- Call your county FSA office to make your 2026 election and sign before Dec. 11, 2026.
- Check your base allocation notice for new base acres.
- Use a university decision tool if you're weighing ARC against PLC. Talk it over with your crop insurance agent too.
- Mark March 15, 2027 for 2027 enrollment if you don't sign a multi-year contract.
Cownty keeps a deadlines calendar with FSA sign-up dates and can text you a reminder.
Cownty is an independent service and is not affiliated with USDA or FSA. This is general information, not financial advice. FSA determines eligibility and payments.
See it for your county
Check your county
Every county, by state: Texas · Oklahoma · Kansas · New Mexico
Official sources
- FSA – 2026 and 2027 ARC/PLC enrollment announcement (Sept. 15, 2026)
- FSA – ARC and PLC program page
- FSA – 2026 Effective Reference Price calculations (Jan. 14, 2026)
- FSA – National Deadlines
Rules and dates checked against these pages on Oct 18, 2026. Information only, not legal, tax, insurance or financial advice: the agency decides. Not affiliated with USDA or any government agency.