Producers should make ARC-PLC election decisions by Dec. 11

Agricultural producers have a deadline to submit elections and enrollments for the 2026 year.

Producers can elect coverage and enroll in crop-by-crop Agricultural Risk Coverage-County (ARC-CO) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs within each Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm unit, or ARC-Individual for the entire farm, for the 2026 crop year.

The election deadline is Dec. 11, 2026.

“The election is much later this year because the FSA has allocated additional base acres,” says Ron Haugen, North Dakota State University Extension farm management specialist. “It is somewhat easier for the producer to make the election because more information is known at this later date.”

ARC provides income support payments on historical base acres when actual crop revenue declines below a specified guaranteed level. PLC provides income support payments on historical base acres when the national marketing year average price for a covered commodity falls below its effective reference price.

Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long-grain rice, medium- and short-grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.

NDSU Extension has developed online tools to aid producers in making this decision. The tools can be found at ndsu.ag/farm-mgmt-26.

For more information on ARC and PLC, producers can visit the FSA website at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc or contact their local FSA office.

NDSU Agriculture Communication – Oct 15, 2026

Source: Ron Haugen, 701-231-8103, ronald.haugen@ndsu.edu

Editor: Dominic Erickson, 701-231-5546, dominic.erickson@ndsu.edu