“As many have started or will soon be starting harvest, I would encourage farmers to be thinking about the decision but there is no need to rush into the local FSA office at this time,” she said. “Get through harvest and evaluate how yields turned out, and then do the election and enrollment.”
Reid also encouraged producers not to wait until the deadline because FSA offices could face heavy workloads and staffing constraints.
The USDA announcement also included an update on new base acres, which farmers could qualify for if they were planting more acres than they had in base. More than 30 million acres were eligible for new base-acre allocations, exceeding the national cap. As a result, FSA applied a 3.69% reduction to newly allocated base acres. Existing base acres are not affected, according to Reid.
Meanwhile, ARC and PLC payments for the 2025 crop are scheduled to begin in October 2026. As a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, farmers will receive the higher of the calculated ARC or PLC payment for that crop year, regardless of the program they elected.
Reid said corn, soybeans, wheat and grain sorghum will receive PLC payments for 2025, although ARC payments are higher in some cases for corn and soybeans. K-State shows estimates for these payments for farmers to use on their cash flow.
For the 2026 crop, Reid said producers can use the harvest results, available price information and K-State's decision tools to make a more informed election before the Dec. 11 deadline. K-State’s Department of Agricultural Economics will also be having informational webinars as the deadline gets closer.
Last growing season the Fall Armyworm (FAW) population was huge and they fed on bromegrass in waterways and pastures, volunteer wheat and seedling alfalfa. K-State Extension has several FAW traps out in the state monitoring them again this year. On Sept. 15th FAW trap numbers increased significantly from low trap numbers prior to the 15th.
So, what does that mean, it is not always a good indication of whether populations of the FAW caterpillar will be large based on trap numbers. But farmers need to be vigilant and scout any fall planted alfalfa, bromegrass and winter wheat for potential feeding damage.
Fall Armyworm