Payment Limit Blunts Appeal of New Specialty Assistance for Many Growers
USDA announced specialty crop relief today, but larger growers may not receive much
USDA Secretary Rollins announced the specialty crop details today.
They bumped the amount allocated from $1 billion to about $1.6 billion, however, the overall payment limit is only $250,000 and there is no boost if more than 75% of your AGI is from farming.
Under SDRP, if more than 75% of your AGI was from farming, your payment limit increased to $900,000.
Here is a chart showing the payments per acre:
As you can see there is simply three tiers plus a payment for certain beans and peas. To max out on payments in Tier 1 only requires 385 acres of production which many growers will easily exceed. However, many of these growers will operate as partnerships with multiple owners, but larger operations will see relief not like smaller operations.
You can start accessing your online application on Monday or wait a week to do it in the local FSA office. You are also subject to a $900,000 AGI limit both at the entity level and individual level.