Minding Ag's Business

Up in the Air on Farm Programs

More than half of the readers surveyed by DTN onlline this month reported they hadn't decided on which farm bill option or lacked enough information to make a decision.

Despite unprecedented efforts to educate farmers on 2014 farm bill choices, most growers remain foggy about which options to elect or which might provide the best long-term protection against low prices or revenues.

Unlike any other farm bill, consultants and land grant educators have gone viral with online analysis this year, scheduling weekly webinars, offering pre-recorded podcasts to answer common questions (https://www.afpc.tamu.edu/…) and attempting to simplify the most sophisticated online tools ever to measure the probability of yield and price outcomes with YouTube presentations. The University of Illinois alone has so far posted 42 papers on the topic at farmdoc daily and offers a webinar every Friday on how to use their calculator to assess which program is right fit for each farm. Texas A&M's site has a tool and educational podcasts. They are offering live events in the Midwest in November and December.

"This is really the first time educators have used online media as a farm bill training tool," says Jim Richardson, a Texas A&M economist who has been developing farm bill decision aids for decades. Back in the 1980s, it required just a single sheet of paper and a few calculations. Now the program is so complex, it required 1,500 overheads for the Farm Service Agency training manual, he says.

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DTN's latest online poll shows it's good growers won't need to make farm bill elections until March. Many producers remain perplexed or undecided on which farm bill option they are likely to elect on the majority of their acres, given what they know now about price projections and yields now. Altogether 17% said they hadn't decided and another 38% said they didn't have enough information to make a decision.

So as soon as you finish harvest, start studying. One Texas grower had 77 separate farms and needs yield data going back at least 10 years for each crop. Fifteen years is even better if you want a more accurate assessment of your personal yield risk vs. county averages, Richardson says.

University of Illinois tool at http://fsa.usapas.com/…

Texas A&M tool at http://usda.afpc.tamu.edu/…

EDITOR'S NOTE: Join University of Illinois economist Gary Schnitkey, Ohio State University economist Carl Zulauf and Kennedy and Coe farm program specialist Wayne Myers for an authoritative discussion and answer session on your farm bill questions at the DTN-Progressive Farmer Ag Summit Dec. 8-10 in Chicago. Go to www.dtnagsummit.com for details. Discounts end Nov. 27.

Follow me on Twitter@MarciaZTaylor

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Unknown
11/5/2014 | 8:37 PM CST
Pretty funny, Mr Doobie..I mean Bandy
Mr. Brandy
10/31/2014 | 4:21 PM CDT
Overly complicated messed up farm bill. Must have been thought up by some Colorado and Washington congressmen during an evening of "Who can roll up the fattest doobie". Otherwise, how would you think up this stuff?