The crops from one side of the Corn Belt to the other look good. Really good. That's pushed the price of corn, soybean and wheat lower and consequently made the government's new ACRE farm program look really good, too. So good that the Gary Schnitkey, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois says there is about a 60% chance it'll pay out this season.
"What you have to look at for corn is the benchmark yield they're using for calculating the guarantee is 172, which is the Olympic average of the five previous years," Schnitkey said. "If anything we're probably close to a little bit below that and the benchmark price isn't set completely yet, but will likely be $4.13 or $4.15, and right now we're seeing cash prices in the $3.50 and below range."
And a $3.50 season's average cash price and something close to an average yield in would trigger roughly a $60 per acre payment from the ACRE program.
Sign up for ACRE for the 2009 crop year closes at the end of business on Friday at the local Farm Service Agency office.
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