On Monday, August 27, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced details of actions the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take to assist farmers in response to trade damage from tariffs by foreign nations.
Payment Details
Payments will be 50% of 2018 production levels times the following:
- Soybeans: $1.65/bu
- Corn: 1 cent/bu
- Wheat: 14 cents/bu
- Sorghum: 86 cents/bu
- Hogs: Number of pigs on farm times $8, based on inventory as of Aug. 1 (As we currently understand, this applies only to those who have ownership of hogs, not contract farms.)
- Dairy: 12 cents/cwt of milk produced
- Payment for dairy is based off historical production reported for the MPP program
- For existing dairy operations, production history is the highest annual milk production marketed in the full calendar years of 2011, 2012, and 2013
- The Dairy must have been in operation on June 1, 2018
Please keep in mind that producers must have harvest 100% complete before they report production.
Also, usual FSA payment rules apply:
- Producers must not exceed $900k AGI as an average over 2014, 2015, 2016
- Must be in compliance with conservation rules
- Total payment will not exceed $125k (to be tabulated separately from other payments like ARC, PLC)
Sign-up Details
Sign up is scheduled to begin on or around Sept 4th. State FSA offices have been tasked with training the county offices, so every county will likely vary a bit by a few days. The details further stated that “An Announcement about further payments will be made in the coming months, if warranted”. So, it’s possible we could see payments on the other 50%, but it looks like that depends on how trade talks go from here on out.
Click here to view the full announcement from USDA.
