Risk Management Toolbox for Specialty Crop Growers

Understanding and Determining APH

The initials APH that you often see in publications and Farm Service Agency (FSA) materials stand for "Actual Production History."

Actual Production History is extremely important to individual producers in determining the benefits that may be received should a crop disaster occur. It is the only tool specialty crop producers can use to prove a unique yield to their operation and possibly be rewarded more than average in the event of a disaster. In addition, APH may also assist in answering questions from lenders in light of a farm expansion or farm restructuring. It may help answer questions such as:

• what is my true cost of production?
• should I expand acreage or put more inputs into my additional acreage?
• which crops I am making money on?

Actual Production History is determined by averaging the annual production yield of a particular crop from your farm for a 4-10 year period. If a producer does not have a minimum of four years production, they may still qualify for Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance (NAP), however, the benefits will be reduced according to the number of years the crop was grown or reported. Depending on the exact circumstances, you will only be allowed 65-90% of your average county or area yield for years that no production history exists.

It's necessary to report timely and accurately crop acreage and yield for all years of production. Report all information through your local FSA Office. Report acreage and crop type by the crop reporting deadline. Report yield by the following years crop reporting date. You must report annually -- skips in reporting years will affect APH and will be considered no yield in that year. Once you begin to report, remember to report each and every year.

Records must be verifiable or reliable. Verifiable records are those that can be verified by sales receipts or other two party documents. Those operations that sell directly to the consumer, such as farmers market sales, are likely to have "reliable" records, but not "verifiable" records. They must reflect day-to-day harvesting and sales by specific crop so the year-end data can be derived from them.

Building an APH is an essential important tool for managing risk, especially if you have not started to report yield data for your farm. There are no fees required to report yield data to build your individual farm crop APH.

Measuring crop acres accurately is extremely important. Report exact crop field acres or measurements. This can be done by multiplying the length times width and dividing by 43,560 (amount of feet in an acre), or count the rows or measuring the row length and multiply them together and divide the amount of row length for the proper row width. A row width of 4 ft. has 10,890 running feet per acre. For example, if a producer has 60 rows of crop, rows 500 feet long, 4 feet apart, there would be 2.75 acres. (60 rows x 500 feet long = 30,000 feet (10890 (feet in a 4 foot row) = 2.75 acres.

A producer may request measurement service from the Farm Service Agency; however, a fee will be charged.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Home | RMA Pilot Programs | Understanding and Determining APH | Record Keeping: Essential for Risk Management | Notice of Loss: Reporting Noninsured Crop Loss to FSA | Case Study 1: Berry Farmer Jill | Case Study 2: Veggie Joe

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