Farm bill discussions set for High Plains cotton producers June 19-20, July 12

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will host another round of cotton meetings in the High Plains June 19 to 20 and July 12 to explain new cotton provisions in the farm bill.

DeDe Jones, AgriLife Extension risk management program specialist in Amarillo, will update cotton producers on what actions they need to take in the very near future.

Jones will discuss how the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 authorized changes to seed cotton as a covered commodity that require farmers to act on their generic base acres.

Beginning with the crop planted this year, seed cotton is a covered commodity just as other crops and eligible for either Price Loss Coverage, or PLC, or Agricultural Risk Coverage, or ARC.

“Sign-up will be underway soon in many Texas Panhandle counties,” Jones said. “These decisions, in a lot of cases, are not simple and need to be taken seriously because they could affect operations for several years to come.”

The meetings are set for:

– June 19, 9 a.m., Fair Park Auditorium Reunion Room, at the end of N. Commerce St., Childress.

– June 19, 12 p.m., Bob Wills Community Center, 602 Lyles St., Turkey.

– June 20, 10 a.m., Bura Handley Community Center, 802 10th St., Wellington.

– June 20, 2 p.m., Wheeler County Extension Office, 7939 U.S. Hwy 83, Wheeler.

– July 12, 9 a.m., Randall County Extension Office, 200 Brown Road, Canyon.

– July 12, 1 p.m., Deaf Smith County Extension Office, 903 14th St., Hereford.

Also to be discussed is the Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center’s decision aid tool to help producers understand how the new seed cotton program may affect their Farm Service Agency payments.

The decision aid is located at https://www.afpc.tamu.edu/tools/cotton-base.

For more information, contact Jones at 806-677-5600.