The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, hereafter referred to as the 2002 Farm Bill, includes provisions authorizing direct and counter-cyclical payments for 2002 through 2007 crops. These payments will be determined using base acres and program yields. Farmers and landowners have one-time decisions to make concerning these acres and yields. They either can “update” acres to reflect acres from 1998 through 2001 or they can “not update” and have acres based on those used to calculate Agricultural Marketing Transition Act (AMTA) payments. If base acres are updated, farmers also can update yields used to determine counter-cyclical payments.
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