The USDA recently announced the following decision making timeline for each Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm as part of the 2014 Food & Farm Act.

These dates apply to the new programs, Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) program, and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs administered by the FSA.

Feb. 28 is the deadline for paperwork dealing with program yield updating and program acre reallocation to be completed for each FSA farm. Owners have a one-time opportunity to reallocate the farm's base acres or update yields.

Nov. 17 to March 31 is the time for paperwork dealing with program choice for each FSA farm. Producers make an election that will remain in effect for the 2014-2018 crop years, of the following:

• PLC or ARC County on a covered commodity-by-commodity basis; or

• ARC Individual for all covered commodities on the farm.

Mid-April to summer 2015 is the time for ARC/PLC Enrollment. This is when producers will sign contracts to participate in ARC/PLC for 2014 and 2015 crop years.

Note these dates are subject to change. Butler, Beaver and Allegheny County producers may contact their local FSA Office at 724-482-4800, Ext. 2.

Now that the periods for making 2014 Farm Bill decisions have been announced, land owners and producers may want to review and understand programs and their long term implications more thoroughly.

The Penn State Extension is scheduling educational opportunities over the coming winter months to assist in this effort.

For now, let's just consider the yield update and base acre reallocation decisions as they are the most pressing at this time.

Farmland owners and renters received FSA letters during August. These letters had the following information for each FSA farm serial number:

• Current base acres

• Program yields

• All 2008 through 2012 yields will be used to update any program crop yields

• Acres planted to program crops from 2008 through 2013

• All 2009-2012 program crop planted acres will be used for any base acre reallocation

As you can tell, the information in your August FSA letters will be useful as we start to make decisions on yield updating, base acreage reallocation, and later when choosing commodity programs.

A one-time, irrevocable option exists to keep the current program yield for each program crop, or update the yield to 90 percent of average yields from 2008 to 2012.If any yield between 2008 and 2012 are below a plug yield or if evidence does not exist to support a yield for the FSA farm, the plug yield will be used in calculating the updated yield.

A one-time, irrevocable decision exists to retain the current allocation of base acres by program crop or update each crop's acres based on average program crop plantings from 2009 through 2012.This decision will not change the total base acres on the farm but could change the acres allocated to each crop.There are at least a few online decision tools that may help us make these decisions. Two of the officially sanctioned decision tools can be found on the FSA website.Check the Penn State Extension website for additional educational resources on this topic.Check in once in a while as materials are beginning to populate this extension educational resource.Luke Fritz is executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency.