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This year's farm bill took months, really years in the making. At the end of June Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer announced some of the first rules for implementing the 2008 Farm Bill. (Click HERE for the full transcript and audio from Schafer.) Schafer announced June 25 sign-up for the 2008 Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment Program (DCP) helps deliver certainty for the crop year and the option of a timely advance payment. Contracts are at USDA Service Centers and signup will continue until September 30, 2008. USDA's DCP readiness follows the June 12 availability of marketing assistance loan and loan deficiency payment (LDP) provisions, within three weeks of commodity title enactment. (For the full announcement, click HERE) The rules for the 2008 DCP are very similar to those for 2007. Schafer said that allowed USDA to move quickly in developing software to process this year's contracts.
The '08 farm bill did however make one immediate change to the DCP by ending payments to farms with less than 10 base acres, unless they are owned by a socially disadvantaged or limited resource farmer or rancher.
Schafer said this year's program is similar to last year's in two important ways. First, producers won't need to file new farm operating plans unless they have had changes in operations that would affect their eligibility.
And adjusted gross income compliance certification of record will carry forward this year. The adjusted gross income limit remains at $2.5 million for this year; however, starting in '09 producers won't be eligible for the program if their non-farm income exceeds $500,000 or their farm income is over $750,000. And as always, if farmers and ranchers are married, those figures would be doubled.
Other program changes will also be taking effect with the '09 crop year and beyond. Those will require USDA to issue new rules and handbooks and develop new software. Schafer said USDA would announce those changes as soon as they are ready and as they come to be implemented.
ACRE will be delayed
As it currently stands, the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) won't be an option for farmers until at least 2009. When asked whether ACRE will be up in running in time for the planting of the winter wheat crop, Schafer said it's unlikely that USDA will have the rulemaking process complete.
The ACRE program requires additional implementation resources for the Farm Service Agency, stated Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner. Conner said USDA is working with Congress to obtain additional resources for both personnel and IT equipment to have timely implementation of the ACRE program.
"Our advisors tell us that the data that is necessary to implement ACRE simply cannot be put upon the current computer system that is housed in the Farm Service Agency, and there will need to be changes in that system before we can implement ACRE fully," Conner said.
Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric.
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