That's not true in all cases. I got out when Freedom 2 Farm came along made the mistake of believing the govt.  would do away with payments and keep their word. 

It was painful on the outside watching F2F participants getting big LDP's on corn while I got zip. It was of my own doing though so toughed it out.

After that program the only way to get back in was to prove planted acres and yields. Fortunately I was able to do that so got to update my bases and yields at that point. Others had the same opportunity even if they were in F2F but I did not talk to anyone that was willing or able to provide all the paper work to do it. I had the records and scale tickets on a field by field basis to prove every bushel and had still reported acreages even though not in the program. Sort of makes all those claims of fantastic yields suspect when they are not willing to put them up and prove them doesn't it ?

I don't like the programs and the paperwork involved but learned the painful lesson and will let others give them up first next time around.

That monumental task of updating bases and yields has proven to pay off very well since that time. I recognized it as a very rare opportunity and at the same time it was the only path back into the program which fortunately I was able to use.

This is what the records and proof looked like at the time.

Edit: Just noticed this picture was taken 14 years ago today on 2/10/2003

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P2100020.JPG (191KB - 63 downloads)