(a) An applicant or borrower must submit a farm operating plan to the Agency, upon request, for loan making or servicing purposes.

(b) An applicant or borrower may request Agency assistance in developing the farm operating plan.

(c) The farm operating plan will be based on accurate and verifiable information.

(1) Historical information will be used as a guide.

(2) Positive and negative trends, mutually agreed upon changes and improvements, and current input prices will be taken into consideration when arriving at reasonable projections.

(3) Projected yields will be calculated according to the following priorities:

(i) The applicant or borrower's own production records for the previous 3 years;

(ii) The per-acre actual production history of the crops produced by the farming operation used to determine Federal crop insurance payments, if available;

(iii) FSA Farm Program actual yield records;

(iv) County averages;

(v) State averages.

(4) If the applicant or borrower's production history has been substantially affected by a disaster declared by the President or designated by the Secretary of Agriculture, or the applicant or borrower has had a qualifying loss from such disaster but the farming operation was not located in a declared or designated disaster area, the applicant or borrower may:

(i) Use county average yields, or state average yields if county average yields are not available, in place of the disaster year yields; or

(ii) Exclude the production year with the lowest actual or county average yield if their yields were affected by disasters during at least 2 of the 3 years.

(d) Unit prices for agricultural commodities established by the Agency will generally be used. Applicants and borrowers that provide evidence that they will receive a premium price for a commodity may use a price above the price established by the Agency.

(e) For MLs, when projected yields and unit prices cannot be determined as specified in paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section because the data is not available or practicable, other documentation from other reliable sources may be used to assist in developing the applicant's farm operating plan.

(f) Except as provided in paragraph (g) of this section, the applicant or borrower must sign the final farm operating plan prior to approval of any loan or servicing action.

(g) If the Agency believes the applicant or borrower's farm operating plan is inaccurate, or the information upon which it is based cannot be verified, the Agency will discuss and try to resolve the concerns with the applicant or borrower. If an agreement cannot be reached, the Agency will make loan approval and servicing determinations based on the Agency's revised farm operating plan.

[72 FR 63285, Nov. 8, 2007, as amended at 78 FR 3835, Jan. 17, 2013]