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More information is becoming available about how the revenue assurance program might work if enacted in this next farm bill. The House version includes a national revenue approach, while a Durbin-Brown Senate bill bases revenue on a state aggregate. The National Corn Growers Association has also proposed a county-based revenue countercyclical program.
New resources are now available online to help you determine what scenario might offer the best protection for your farm. Ohio State University economist Carl Zulauf does a good job of explaining the Durbin-Brown proposal in a one page overview of the program. In addition, the University of Illinois has added a spreadsheet to its Farm Analysis Solution Tools (FAST) analyzing the different farm bill proposals using a grower's own "what-if" scenarios.
Current programs use a national loan and target price. The Durbin-Brown proposal uses revenue targets set at the state level. A state program should provide more risk protection than a national program because it will reflect more localized weather anomalies, such as drought, that occur at an individual state level. States with greater revenue variability should receive greater revenue payments, everything else constant, under a state than under a national program, Zulauf said.
The U of I online calculator will compare the following Farm Bill options:
The program includes formulas for corn, soybeans and wheat and uses data for 10 Corn Belt states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota.
Historical data is used as the default in the Web site from 1985 -2006. Data for 2007 -2009 uses yield trends as calculated by the Durbin/Brown proposal and pricing from Congressional Budget Office projections.
The spreadsheet is compatible with Microsoft Excel and can be downloaded at the University of Illinois' Farmdoc Web site under the F.A.S.T. section.
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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