Between October 1, 2002 and April 1, 2003, farmers and landowners will choose one of five options for determining base acres under the 2002 Farm Bill. This choice influences direct and counter-cyclical (CC) payments that will be received for crops grown in 2002 through 2007. The decision also will impact whether the yields used to calculate CC payments can be partially updated (see Updating Acres and Yields Under the 2002 Farm Bill at http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/assets/management/fefo/html/fefo02_11.html for further descriptions). The five options are: 1. Retain 2002 Production Flexibility Contract (PFC) acres,
2. Retain 2002 PFC acres and add minimum eligible oilseed acres,
3. Exchange 2002 PFC acres for maximum oilseed acres,
4. Update acres using the average of acres planted or prevented planting from 1998 through 2001, and
5. Exchange existing 2002 PFC acres with less than maximum or more than minimum oilseed acres.
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