The 2008 farm bill provided a new option to sign up for this year. The Average Crop Revenue Election, or ACRE, program offers an alternative to the counter-cyclical payment option of the past farm bill. Sign up begins this spring, but many farmers are confused about the potential benefits and risks for their specific farm operation.
William Edwards, extension economist with Iowa State University, wrote a spreadsheet to bring the complexities of the program into better focus so that you can make an informed decision. The spreadsheet allows you to enter your specific farm projections, adjusting yields and price outlooks to see how it changes projected payments. It should provide a starting place for assessing your own options, but the calculations reflect Iowa data only at this point.
This valuable tool is our Farm Futures Spreadsheet of the Month. The 148-kilobyte spreadsheet should work with Excel 2000, 2002 or Excel XP. Best bet is to go directly to the Iowa State link for the most current version. Just visit www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/xls/a1-45acrecalculator.xls
Do you have a spreadsheet that's made a difference on your operation that you'd be willing to share with other readers? Drop us a line at FarmFutures@farmprogress.com with a description of the spreadsheet. We'll pay $75 if we feature your farmer-written non-commercial program as our Spreadsheet of the Month.
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