The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it will distribute more than $7 billion in payments to farmers covered under the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs. About 1.7 million farms enrolled in the ARC or PLC programs will receive safety net payments due to market downturns during the 2015 crop year.
“These payments will help provide reassurance to America’s farm families, who are standing strong against low commodity prices compounded by unfavorable growing conditions in many parts of the country,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a release. “At USDA, we are standing strong behind them, tapping in to every resource that we have to help. So far in 2016, this has included creating a one-time cost share program for cotton ginning, purchasing about $800 million in excess commodities to be redirected to food banks and those in need, making $11 million in payments to America’s dairy farmers through the Dairy Margin Protection Program, and reprogramming Farm Service Agency funds to expand credit options for farmers and ranchers in need of extra capital.”
The 2014 Farm Bill authorized the ARC-PLC payments to trigger and provide financial assistance only when decreases in revenues or crop prices, respectively, occur. The ARC and PLC programs primarily allow farmers and ranchers to continue to produce for the market by making payments on a percentage of historical base production, limiting the impact on production decisions, according to USDA.
Farmers nationwide enrolled 96 percent of soybean base acres, 91 percent of corn base acres and 66 percent of wheat base acres in the ARC-County coverage option. Farmers enrolled 99 percent of long grain rice and peanut base acres and 94 percent of medium grain base acres in the PLC option.
Overall, 76 percent of participating farm base acres are enrolled in ARC-County, 23 percent in PLC and one percent in ARC-Individual.
“As always, we continue to watch market conditions and will explore opportunities for further assistance in the coming months,” Vilsack said. “For producers challenged by weather, disease and falling prices, we will continue to ensure the availability of a strong safety net to keep them farming or ranching.”
Payments for long and medium grain rice (except for temperate Japonica rice) will be announced in November, followed by remaining oilseeds and chickpeas in December and temperate Japonica rice in February 2017.
Upland cotton is no longer a covered commodity.
I am pretty sure my grandfather, a dairy farmer, and other old timers never received payments from the federal government to protect them from adverse weather and downturns in market prices! He also did not drive a new pickup or a new air-conditioned tractor. We seems have grown very “soft” and dependent on Uncle Sam in this country!
A purchase program for supporting farm milk prices started with the Agricultural Act of 1949 and was amended several times since then.
Source: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/dairy/policy.aspx
Family farms are going to be hit hard the next couple years. We are looking at record low rice prices and the government money will not make it to the farmer till two years after the crop year. In the mean time bankers are not going to loan money for the crop when it is showing a 20 percent loss before planting. We are going to loss the backbone of America in the next 2 years.