Farmdoc unveils PLC, ARC payment calculator

• Published in: Southeast Farm Press
• Main Author: Keating, Austin
• Format: Journal Article Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Clarksdale Penton Media, Inc., Penton Business Media, Inc. and their subsidiaries 11.10.2019; Informa
• Subjects: Agricultural policy; Agricultural subsidies; Algorithms; Economists; Farmers; Internet software; Software developers (Persons); Supercomputers; Web portals; Web site management software
• ISSN: 0194-0937; 2161-9212

Following passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, the Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs were changed slightly, prompting Schnitkey and Jonathan Coppess, director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program, to approach the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Urbana, Ill. Programmers at the center helped them create a secure web portal for users to create a free account and run 1,000 calculations to show the range of possible payment scenarios, which will help inform their decision to sign up for PLC or ARC during crop years 2019 to 2023. Coppess says future prices will always be subject to change, but by setting one of four potential reference price scenarios in the calculator, farmers will get a better idea of the range and likelihood of different payments.