USDA Sets May 15 Deadline for Base Acre Data at County FSA Offices to Notify Landowners
FSA outlines strict timelines and data requirements tied to 30 million new base acres under 2025 farm law
Note: This article amplifies & clarifies information contained in today’s Updates.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has established a firm May 15, 2026, deadline for collecting and finalizing farm data needed to notify landowners of their eligibility for additional base acres authorized under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), according to an agency notice Link.
The notice explains that OBBBA, enacted July 4, 2025, provides for the allocation of 30 million new base acres based on farms’ cropping history from 2019 through 2023, and requires USDA to notify all eligible owners. To meet that mandate, FSA will pull all relevant data from its CRM Farm Records system and Acreage History and Base Allocation software by 5 p.m. CT on May 15.
USDA emphasized that all acreage history “digs” — the process of compiling and validating planting data — must be completed and loaded into the system by the same deadline to ensure accurate notifications. Any data submitted after May 15 will not be included in the initial owner notifications, even though the system will remain open for updates.
The agency also set earlier administrative deadlines, requiring county offices to submit requests by May 4 for farms needing to be backdated to 2019, and for state offices to submit newly created farm requests to the national system by May 8 if additional assistance is needed.
Beyond acreage reporting, FSA directed that all farm records and producer data — including land classifications, producer associations, and base acre adjustments — must be fully updated by the May 15 cutoff. Officials warned that incomplete or outdated records could lead to inaccurate eligibility determinations for landowners.
State and county offices are tasked with ensuring compliance, including training staff and completing all required updates on time, as USDA moves to implement one of the largest base acre reallocations in recent farm policy.
