Agricultural News
Wheat Growers Cheer USDA Sending Farm Safety Net Checks Out to Farmers Across the US
Tue, 04 Oct 2016 19:53:55 CDT
On Tuesday, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced farm program payments would be going out beginning this week for the 2015 crop year through the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) County program and the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program, which were both created in the 2014 Farm Bill. These programs provide essential revenue and price support for farmers across the country. In total, more than $7 billion in payments are being made through these programs, including around $1 billion in assistance for wheat farmers.
"This has been a rough marketing year for farmers, with wheat prices dropping lower than we've seen in decades," said NAWG President Gordon Stoner. "It's years like this that a viable farm safety net is critically important, and I applaud Secretary Vilsack's quick action to roll out these programs this new fiscal year. The program payments being announced today will provide a needed cushion for farmers during these tough economic conditions in wheat country."
With today's announcement, NAWG will dig deeper into the data that was used to calculate county payment rates and will seek feedback from states about the effectiveness of these programs. USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) has posted maps on its website showing the payment rate ranges for wheat, corn, and soybeans through the ARC-County program, as well as revenue maps for those commodities. Those maps can be found at this link. As required by Congress in the Budget Control Act of 2011, all payments are reduced by 6.8 percent as part of sequestration requirements.
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