Putting Your Own PLC Yield Into the Break-even Spreadsheet
We show you how to input your PLC yield into the spreadsheets
We have provided several spreadsheets on the ARC-CO estimated payments for corn, soybeans and wheat. In those spreadsheets, we assumed your PLC yield was 80% of benchmark yield, however, this post will show you how to input your actual PLC yield to get an idea of what your final PLC payment might be.
Also, the wheat MYA price has gone final at $5.06. Update the price shown in cell F4 to that amount. We had previously used $5.05, but now you can input the actual final price.
The spreadsheet asks for your PLC yield as a percentage of the county benchmark, not as a bushel figure — and that trips people up. There’s one cell to change, and one quick conversion to do first. Here’s exactly how.
The cell is C6. It’s in the blue assumptions block near the top, labeled “PLC yield default (% of benchmark).” It ships at 80%. That’s a placeholder — replace it with your farm’s number.
Why a percentage and not bushels? The sheet multiplies whatever you put in C6 by each county’s benchmark yield to get a PLC yield for that county. That’s how one entry can drive the whole table. So the cell will not accept a bushel figure directly — you have to hand it a percentage.
The conversion is one step. Take your farm’s PLC yield in bushels and divide it by your county’s benchmark yield (column B). That’s the percentage to enter.
Your PLC yield ÷ county benchmark yield = the percentage for C6
Walla Walla example. Say your Walla Walla wheat PLC yield is 95 bushels. Walla Walla’s benchmark yield is 77.2 bushels (column B). So:
95 ÷ 77.2 = 1.23, or 123%
Type 123% into C6 — or, easier and exact, just type =95/77.2 right into the cell and press Enter. Excel stores it as 123% and does the rest. Because C6 is already formatted as a percentage, don’t type a bare “95” — the cell would read that as 95%, not 95 bushels.
What you’ll see. With a 95-bushel PLC yield, Walla Walla’s wheat PLC payment jumps to $104.17 per acre (at 85% of base acres). Set that against the maxed-out ARC-CO of $54.96 per acre and PLC is ahead by $49 an acre — no contest. A strong PLC yield widens the gap fast.
One thing to watch. Cell C6 is global — it applies the same percentage to all 29 counties at once. So enter the percentage that matches the county you’re actually reading, and look at that county’s row. If you want to check a different county, re-run the conversion against that county’s benchmark yield and re-enter it. The benchmark differs by county, so 123% in Walla Walla is not 123% in Whitman.
Where to find your PLC yield. This is your farm’s established PLC (payment) yield on file with FSA — the one carried on your farm records, not the county benchmark and not your actual harvested yield. If you’re not sure of it, your local FSA office can pull it.