Macon County crop farmers have until Dec. 11 to enroll in federal farm safety-net programs for 2026, and a new free University of Missouri tool lets them compare potential payments using county data.
The ARC/PLC Payments Explorer, developed by MU's Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center, compares Price Loss Coverage with county-level Agricultural Risk Coverage, according to an MU Extension release Monday. PLC pays when commodity prices fall. ARC-CO protects against drops in county crop revenue from lower prices, poorer yields, or both.
Most Macon County base acres are already in ARC-CO. For 2025, producers enrolled about 115,300 base acres in the two programs, and 83% of them were in ARC-CO, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency data. ARC-CO covered about 93% of the county's enrolled soybean base acres, 78% of corn, and 71% of wheat.
"Choosing between ARC and PLC can be a difficult decision, particularly when prices and yields are uncertain," said Alejandro Plastina, director of the center and an associate professor of agricultural finance.
Users pick a county, crop, and irrigation practice, then enter an expected marketing-year average price and their farm's PLC yield. The tool estimates payment rates per enrolled acre under both programs and compares scenarios with prices 10% higher or lower, according to the release. It also shows the county yield at which the two programs would pay the same and how often county yields have recently fallen below that level.
The estimates are not guarantees, Plastina said in the release, because actual payments depend on final prices, yields, and program rules. A third option, ARC-IC, which is based on individual farm revenue, is not included because the farm-level data it needs is not public.
The Dec. 11 deadline covers both program election and enrollment. Producers who miss it keep their 2025 election for covered crops but cannot receive 2026 payments, according to the release and the Farm Service Agency. Enrollment for 2027 runs Nov. 2 through March 15, according to the agency.
The tool is at raff.missouri.edu/arc-plc-pe. The Macon County FSA office is in the USDA Service Center at 2108 U.S. Highway 63 in Macon, 660-385-2616.