U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack plans to hire temporary workers to assist farmers with sign-up for new farm bill programs.............................5
Celebrate Ag Safety Awareness Week and practice its theme, “Farm Safety — Your Only Passenger.”......................................10
Corn growers who bought Agrisure Duracade seed have options despite major exporters’ refusal to accept it.........................14
A service of
Politics ‘no laughing matter’
Illinois Farm Bureau mission: Improve the economic well-being of agriculture and enrich the quality of farm family life. Monday, March 3, 2014
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Two sections Volume 42, No. 9
GEARING UP FOR SPRING
IFB leaders told that state’s reputation hurts economy BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek
It’s beginning to feel like spring at Heritage FS Inc.’s new agrichemical mixing facility at Gilman. Steve Rubenacker with AAK Mechanical in Clinton checks a valve on mixing equipment. The liquid portion of the new mixing facility, featuring 15,000-ton UAN capacity, opened last week with a 24/7 bay accessible to farmers. Heritage Marketing Manager Bill Romshek said the 25,000-ton dry mixing area will be completed by Aug. 1. (Photo by Ken Kashian)
Mention Illinois’ notoriety for corrupt politicians and you’ll probably get a laugh. Veteran political journalist David Yepsen did last week. However, Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, cautioned Farm Bureau leaders their state’s political reputation hurts Illinois’ economy and chances for economic growth. “What business wants to come to a state with the reputation of pay to play?” he asked. After 34 years covering Iowa politics and presidential camDavid Yepsen paigns for the Des Moines Register, Yepsen saw his share of characters and told campaign stories, including borrowing a hotel clerk’s car to whisk candidate Joe Biden off for midnight pizza in rural Iowa. But Illinois politics are no laughing matter, according to Yepsen, who spoke during the Illinois Farm Bureau Governmental Affairs Leadership
Decisions ahead on crop revenue programs
Periodicals: Time Valued
Please see Yepsen, page 3
BY DEANA STROISCH FarmWeek
Farmers will face a series of irrevocable, one-time decisions later this year regarding new crop revenue programs. The decisions, which will affect farm income for the next five years, include whether to retain or reallocate base acres and update payment yields. Farmers also will have a choice of programs: Price Loss Coverage (PLC) or Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) at the county level or individual farm level.
Direct payments, countercyclical payments, ACRE and SURE programs were Jonathan Coppess eliminated under the 2014 farm bill. Additional insurance coverage was added through a Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), which will be available in 2015. And while program details are still being worked out, University of Illinois’ Jonathan
FarmWeek on the web: FarmWeekNow.com
Coppess offered Illinois Farm Bureau members some initial conclusions on the programs: • Presuming trend yields for corn and soybeans, county ARC in 2014 would reach the cap in most Midwestern counties at prices well above the reference prices, but below USDA’s projected prices. • Individual ARC payments probably will be smaller than county ARC payments. • PLC payments are triggered when the market year average price is below the set reference price. For PLC to be effective for Midwestern corn
and soybeans, prices will have to collapse, Coppess said. • The county ARC guarantee will decline if prices remain low because it’s a rolling five-year Olympic average. • All programs make payments on base acres, not planted acres. A farm’s total base acreage cannot be increased, but farmers can keep current base acres or reallocate base acres across program crops based on a ratio of planted acres during 2009 to 2012. Please see Programs, page 4
Illinois Farm Bureau on the web: www.ilfb.org ®