Sioux County farmers are being urged to complete enrollment in federal farm safety net programs before December 11 to remain eligible for payments for the 2026 crop year.
Teresa Van Sloten, county executive director for the Sioux County Farm Service Agency, says sign-up is moving slowly as the deadline approaches.
“So we’re encouraging farmers to give us a call to get that done real soon, because we have a lot of farms in Sioux County, so we have a long ways to go before then,” Van Sloten said.
The sign-up covers Agriculture Risk Coverage, or ARC, and Price Loss Coverage, or PLC. The voluntary USDA programs help eligible farmers when crop revenues or prices fall below established thresholds. Covered crops include corn and soybeans.
ARC-County uses county yields and national average crop prices to determine whether revenue has fallen below a program guarantee. PLC focuses on prices, paying when a crop’s effective national price falls below its reference price. A separate ARC-Individual option bases coverage on farm revenue.
ARC-County and PLC payments are tied to a farm’s eligible base acres, which reflect historical acreage rather than simply what is planted this year. Enrollment does not guarantee a payment; the program’s payment conditions must also be met.
Economic Research Service
Van Sloten says farmers need to complete their 2026 signup even if they have participated before.
“If you’re not signed up for 2026, you will not get a payment for 2026,” she said.
She says this year’s enrollment followed work to add eligible base acres. Farmers can also complete their 2027 signup now. USDA lists March 15, 2027, as the deadline for that crop year.
Van Sloten says participating Sioux County producers received payments in October for the 2025 crop year, following years when strong prices and yields kept payments from being triggered.
“There were quite a few years where we didn’t trigger a payment because yields were real good and prices were real good,” she said.
For the 2025 crop year only, federal law provided eligible ARC-County and PLC participants with the higher of the two calculated payments, regardless of which program they had selected.
A separate deadline is approaching for dairy farmers. Enrollment in Dairy Margin Coverage for 2027 closes December 18, 2026. That program can pay when the gap between the national milk price and average feed costs falls below a producer’s selected coverage level.
Farmers can contact the Sioux County Farm Service Agency at 712-737-4801 for help with program choices and enrollment. Van Sloten encourages producers to call before the deadlines draw closer.
