2025 Small Grains at a Glance: Wheat, Barley, and Oats
We provide a summary of key PLC and ARC-CO details
Three small grains, three different 2025 stories — but one common thread. On the PLC side, only wheat pays: its MYA fell below the reference price, so PLC is worth $1.29 a bushel. Barley and oats both finished above their reference prices — barley by a single penny, oats by 18 cents — so PLC is zero for both.
But PLC is only half the safety net. On the ARC-CO side, every one of the three had its MYA price land below its benchmark price, which means ARC-CO is in play across the board. Here’s the side-by-side:
How to read the bottom two rows. They show the actual county yield — as a percent of the benchmark yield — needed to (1) start an ARC-CO payment and (2) run it to the 12% maximum. Anything at or below those figures qualifies.
What jumps out:
Wheat’s price fell the hardest — the MYA is only 72.5% of the benchmark price. That drop alone is so large that wheat ARC-CO is already maxed out at 107.6% of benchmark yield, meaning even an above-benchmark harvest hits the cap. Wheat growers get the higher of a $1.29 PLC or a maxed ARC-CO.
Barley barely moved — the MYA is 89.5% of benchmark. ARC-CO just opens at benchmark yield (100.5%) and needs a yield down around 87% of benchmark to max out.
Oats sit in between — ARC-CO starts around 107% of benchmark and maxes near 93%.
The takeaway. Don’t let a zero PLC on barley or oats fool you into thinking those bases pay nothing for 2025. With prices below benchmark on all three, ARC-CO is the one to watch — and for 2025 the program pays the higher of the two automatically, no election required.