Farmers are starting to face some of the changes in the new farm bill. One of those requirements is updating farm crop acres and yield numbers at their county Farm Service Agency. Iowa State University ag economist William Edwards says the I-S-U Extension Department can help you make those decisions.Producers have a choice of whether to update acres and yields, and have a choice of different methods for doing the updates. He says extension has information on how to make those updates. Edwards says updating the yield isn’t always as easy as it sounds.He says some farmers may have some problems finding all their sales receipts and may need help rounding up the information on crop yields. Edwards says the decisions made by farmers will impact the money they make on future government payments. He says corn payments are generally higher and it’s usually to a producers advantage to retain their corn acreage base if that base is high. But, there are trade offs.He says keeping the corn base prevents you from updating yields, and many farmers have seen yields increase since they were last set in the 1980s. Williams says farmers have the next six months to put the information together and make a decision.
