Base Acres Explained: How They Compare to Planting on Nebraska Farms

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CAP ag economists explain how Farm Bill base acres work, why they don’t always match today’s planting decisions, and what potential updates could mean for producers and landowners as new base acres become available. Find Nebraska FARMcast on your favorite platform here.

At a Glance

• Nebraska’s base acres reflect historical planting, not current crop rotations
• Comparing 2019–2023 planting shows major gaps, especially for corn, soybeans, and wheat
• Farmers and landowners face different incentives when deciding whether to update base acres
• Shifts in planting patterns and past policy choices explain much of today’s misalignment
• Proposed 2026 changes could allow farms to add base acres, capped at 30 million acres nationwide

The Farm Bill represents an important piece of legislation that, in part, provides commodity price stability through program payments. Approximately 75% of Nebraska’s cropland is supported by Farm Bill program payments (see previous article here). Importantly, the article revealed large differences in base acre coverage (measured by base acre per planted acre) by county, ranging from 0% in Grant and Hooker counties, to 149% in Nance County.

Since the previous article was published, inquiries have come forward regarding the allocation of base acres by commodity. Specifically, how crop-specific base acres stack up to the number of acres planted to the crop. The purpose of this article is to explore base acre-to-planted-acre relationships by commodity and discuss issues related to updating base acres.

What are base acres and how did they come about?

Base acres are a fixed number determined by historical planting data, typically tied to specific commodity programs managed by the USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA). For many farm programs, but not all, base acres are utilized in determining farm program payments. More base acres on a farm traditionally result in larger farm program payments. No base acres can result in no payment. 

Base acres were created under the Food Security Act of 1985, commonly referred to as the 1985 Farm Bill. When farmers enrolled in commodity programs, those acres were assigned a base. No participation resulted in no base acres. Covered commodities are wheat, oats, barley, corn, grain sorghum, long grain rice, medium/short grain rice, temperate japonica rice, seed cotton, dry peas, lentils, large and small chickpeas, soybeans, peanuts, sunflower seed, canola, flaxseed, mustard seed, rapeseed, safflower, crambe, and sesame seed. 

In 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established, setting the rules for global trade. To comply with WTO standards, subsidies provided to farmers must be “decoupled” from current prices and production to keep subsidies from distorting international trade. U.S. farm program reforms in the 1996 FAIR Act relied upon the base acre system to meet new WTO standards.

Who controls the base acre allocation decision?

Base acres are associated with the land itself, meaning decisions about updating them are made by the landowner. The USDA has occasionally allowed farm owners to update the crops associated with their base acres. The Agricultural Act of 2014 was the last time farm owners could update base acres by reallocating base among covered commodities grown during the 2009-2012 period. Updating base acre crop-type allocation can pose challenges for tenant farmers, as base acre updates may represent a significant risk management decision that lies outside their control. 

What is the issue with base acre by crop? 

The historical evolution of base acre policy implies that the base acres of today do not necessarily reflect crops currently planted. While the discrepancy between base acres and planted acres is easy to spot, efforts to align base to planted crops are more complicated.

If program payments are meant to provide commodity price stability, then payments should be more closely tied to the crops farmers are planting. But we know that base acre policy was driven by global trade policy to minimize trade-distorting subsidies. 

The historical evolution of base acre policy has resulted in some regions where farmers may be receiving a payment from a crop with base that they are not planting. For example, think of receiving a peanut payment — a crop with a high historical payment record — and planting soybeans. Farmers under this scenario would likely not be in favor of seeing changes to base acre policy as payments would likely decline. Landowners with valuable base acres are unlikely to give them up.

Farmers may be receiving little to no payment from base acres under crops they are not growing. For example, think of a farm with barley base that is growing corn. Farmers under this scenario would likely agree with updating base acre policy. Landlords may prefer to allocate base acres towards crops with higher historical payments. 

These two scenarios illustrate conflicting incentives to align base acre crop assignments with a farm’s planting history. 

What is the current base acre allocation by commodity in Nebraska? 

In 2014, farm owners had the opportunity to update the allocation of base acres by commodity. Farm owners could either (A) retain their current base acre allocations or (B) update their base to reflect their planting history from 2009-12. 

The allocation of Nebraska’s base acres by crop is presented in Table 1. Out of the 22 covered commodities, Nebraska only has base acres under ten commodities. Sixty-five percent of Nebraska’s 15.89 million base acres are allocated to corn, 19% to soybeans, 12% to wheat, 3% to grain sorghum, and 1% combined to barley, chickpeas, dry peas, oats, safflower, and sunflower. 

Table 1. 2024 Nebraska Base Acres By Commodity

What would we expect the base acre allocation to be? 

There are important differences in the current base acre allocation and the recent planting history. Table 2 shows the average planting and prevent-plant history by covered commodity in Nebraska from 2019 to 2023, according to USDA FSA. 

Table 2. 2019-2023 Average Number of Acres Planted and Prevent Planted per Covered Commodity in Nebraska

Table 2 reveals that if 2019-2023 planted acres were reflective of base acres, the percentage of corn, grain sorghum, and wheat base in Nebraska would decrease, shifting largely to soybeans and some to oats. 

The discrepancy in the percentage of base acres currently allocated to each commodity and the percentage of acres planted to a covered commodity can be attributed to a couple of reasons. 

First, planting patterns have shifted since the last base acre allocation option in 2014. Using USDA NASS planted acre data, corn acres have grown from 9.15 million to 10.3 million acres. Soybean acres have increased from 4.8 million to 5 million acres per year. Wheat acres have declined from 1.7 million, to 960,000 acres. Table 3 below shows covered commodities that have more than 100,000 planted acres in 2025. 

Table 3. 2009- 2024 Covered Commodity with 100,000 acres or more of Planted Acres in Nebraska, in 1,000’s. 

The second cause of this divergence is how the base acre allocation was handled in 2014. As discussed earlier, the authority to update base acres rests with the landowner and updating was voluntary. Some farm owners simply did not know or care to update their base acre crop allocation. 

The payment outlook was likely an important factor in many farm owners’ base acre allocation decision, perhaps because they perceived larger payments from crops they were no longer growing. In other words, farm owners opted to retain their existing base acre crop allocation because of higher projected payouts.

Another factor may have been if the farm owner received a portion of the payment. For landowners who rent out their land using a cash lease arrangement, there is little direct incentive to update base acres since commodity program payments go entirely to the cash-rent tenant. An indirect incentive exists through the tenant. Greater anticipated payments from commodities could drive up the rental rates cash-rent tenants are willing to pay. In contrast, crop-share landowners have a direct financial stake in the decision, as they receive a portion of commodity program payments. Farm owners who rent their land via crop-share arrangements would be more invested in the base acre allocation decision. 

Looking ahead, under the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, farms may be eligible to increase base acres beginning in the 2026 crop year. If a farm’s 2019–2023 average planted and prevented-planted acres of covered commodities exceed its current base acres, additional base can be added. New base acres will be allocated to crops based on 2019-2023 planting history. However, the total expansion is capped at 30 million acres nationwide. If applications exceed that amount, the new base will be prorated across all eligible farms, meaning the final base acres allocated may fall short of a farm’s historical planting levels.

Base acre policy must determine whether its primary purpose is risk management or income reallocation. If viewed as a risk management instrument, base acres should be more closely tied to current or recent planted acreage, aligning program support with actual production risk. Alternatively, if designed as an income reallocation mechanism, policy should continue to allow farm owners flexibility in reallocating base acres toward crops with higher expected payment rates.

At present, trade distorting effects under WTO appear limited, even non-existent. Leading to a policy discussion focus on domestic distributional and efficiency objectives.

Sources: 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency. (2025, January 6). ARC/PLC program data, 2024 Enrolled Base Acres by Program by Commodity. https://fsa.prod.usda.gov/resources/programs/arc-plc/program-data

U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service. (2024). 2022 Census of Agriculture (AC-22-A-51). https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2022/