Tag: Farm Bill

This page will provide links to presentations and various tools that we create. Please check back frequently as new tools will be added and updates to existing tools will be provided. If you have any questions or find any errors with any of these tools please feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

Farm Bill Learning Session Presentations (December 2014):

All About the 2014 Farm Bill

Farm Bill Decision Aids (part 1)

Farm Bill Decision Aids (part 2)

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Base Reallocation Calculator v 1.0  [updated April 8, 2014]

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Generic Base Distribution Calculator v 1.1 [updated April 14, 2014]

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• v 1.0, April 8, 2014

The 2014 Farm Bill is officially in the books. While there are a few rules and regulations that have yet to be written, we now know the bulk of what the farm bill has to offer. In terms of dairy policy, there is a new program about to be rolled out called the Margin Protection Program. But before going into detail about that program, I want to mention what will be phased out over the course of the next several months. The Dairy Product Price Support Program, the Dairy Export Incentive Program, the Federal Milk Marketing Order Review Commission, and the Milk Income Loss Coverage (MILC) are all eliminated in the 2014 Farm Bill. The MILC program will be phased out by September 1, 2014 or when the Margin Protection Program is up and running, whichever comes first. The programs that are either new or are renewed from the previous Farm Bill include the new Margin Protection Program, the new Dairy Product Donation Program, the renewal of the Dairy Promotion and Research Program, the renewal of the Dairy Indemnity Program, and the renewal of the Dairy Forward Pricing Program.

The Margin Protection Program is the biggest dairy program in the 2014 Farm Bill. It is a safety net program that pays out when the actual dairy margins fall below a producer selected coverage level. The program will be established no later than September 1, 2014 and is open to all dairy operations, regardless of size. There is a $100 administration fee due upon sign-up, and producers can choose a coverage level that guarantees a margin of between $4.00/cwt and $8.00/cwt. Producers can also choose to cover between 25% and 90% of their production history. A producer’s production history is defined as the highest production level from 2011, 2012, and 2013. If a producer is trying to grow his/her operation, he/she can increase their production history annually by an amount no greater than the national annual average growth in production.

The margin is defined as the difference between the “all milk price” and the “average feed cost.” The all milk price is the average price received for a cwt of milk by all dairy operations for all milk sold to dealers in the U.S. The price is reported monthly by the USDA in the Agricultural Prices Report released toward the end of each month by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The average feed cost is the average cost of feed used by a dairy operation to produce a hundredweight of milk and is intended to include the feed cost of both lactating cows as well as dry animals in the herd. The average feed cost is defined as 1.0728 times the price for a bushel of corn plus 0.00735 times the price for a ton of soybean meal plus 0.0137 times the price of a ton of alfalfa hay. Each of these prices are monthly average national prices. The corn price and the alfalfa price are reported in the monthly Agricultural Prices Report released by NASS, while the monthly Soybean Meal price can be found at the bottom of the daily Central Illinois Soybean Processor Report released each day by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Any payments under the Margin Protection Program are triggered by this calculation and are independent of an individual producer’s margins.

Producers will need to sign-up annually for the program and will have the flexibility to choose a different coverage level each year. As mentioned above, there is a $100 administration fee to sign up for the program in addition to the premium for the coverage. The premiums are shown in the table below and will not change over the course of the current farm bill. There are two sets of premiums, those for producers with more than four million pounds of annual milk production and those for producers with less than four million pounds of production. In addition, there will be a 25% reduction in the premium rate for producers with less than four million pounds of production for 2014 and 2015. The rate reduction is intended to encourage smaller producers to sign up. Producers with more than four million pounds of production will have their rates pro-rated based on their production level. In other words, the proportion of their production that is insured under each rate will be equal to their proportion of production that is over/under four million pounds. For example, a producer with six million pounds of production will have two thirds of their covered production charged at the lower rate and one third of their covered production charged at the higher rate. The total premium for the Margin Protection Program is calculated as the coverage percent multiplied by the production history times the premium per hundredweight as show below.

Premium Paid = Coverage % * Production History * Premium/cwt.

Coverage Level	Premium (Under 4 Million Pounds)	Premium (Over 4 Million Pounds)
$4.00	None	None
$4.50	$0.01	$0.02
$5.00	$0.025	$0.04
$5.50	$0.04	$0.10
$6.00	$0.055	$0.155
$6.50	$0.09	$0.29
$7.00	$0.217	$0.83
$7.50	$0.30	$1.06
$8.00	$0.475	$1.36

Under the Margin Protection Program, payments will be made on protected production any time margins averaged over two consecutive months falls below the selected coverage level. As shown below, the payments will be equal to the difference between the coverage threshold (the coverage level for which a producer is paying) and the actual margin multiplied by the coverage percentage (25% to 90%) multiplied by the production history (in cwt) divided by six. The production history is divided by six under the assumption that a two-month period is equal to 1/6 of a producer’s annual production.

Payment = (Coverage Threshold – Actual Margin) * (Coverage %) * (Production History/6)

While many of the details surrounding the Margin Protection Program are known, there are still several rules that have yet to be written. All rules for this program must be written by September 1, 2014. Among those rules include details on sign-up periods and payment timelines. There are also several things to think about before signing up. First of all, it is important to remember that the margins covered do not include fixed costs as well as costs such as labor, veterinary expenses, or utilities. It is also important to remember that payments are triggered on a national margin, not an individual producer’s margins. These things should be included when deciding optimal coverage levels. It should also be noted that a producer cannot participate in both the Livestock Gross Margin Program and the Dairy Margin Protection Program. For more information on the Dairy Title in the Farm Bill, click this link: Dairy Farm Bill.

The recent passage of the 2014 Farm Bill (formally known as the Agricultural Act of 2014) brings about some significant changes in agricultural policies, specifically within Titles One and Eleven in the legislation. The following summarizes the key changes that were made, the new programs that are being made available to landowners and producers, and the decisions that these individuals or firms will need to make.

First, from Title One, the new bill eliminates Direct Payments, the Counter-Cyclical program (CCP), the Average Crop Revenue Election program (ACRE), and the supplemental revenue assistance program. Marketing loans are retained and unchanged.

New offerings for 2014 through 2018 are Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC). PLC and ARC cannot be chosen for the same base acres and committing to either PLC or ARC is locked for the duration of the current Farm Bill (5 years). Also, for 2014 only, transition payments for current cotton base acres and yield will be available.

Two new Title Eleven products are Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) for planted cotton acres and Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) for other covered program crops. Both STAX and SCO are an “insurance styled” revenue protection coverage.

For more detail on these new offerings click HERE and for a breakdown on each individual program click the acronym: ARC, PLC, STAX (including information on 2014 transition payments), and SCO.

With respect to base acres, landowners are provided the opportunity to reallocate the current base acre allotment. This attempts to bring current base allotment more in-line with recent plantings. The reallocation of covered commodities will be in proportion to the 4-year average of the planted acres (actual planted and prevented plantings) from 2009 to 2012 crop years. Also, yields can be updated to reflect 90% of the 5-year average from 2008 to 2012.

Given that cotton is no longer a covered (Title One) commodity, current cotton base can be converted to “generic” base. In any year that generic base is planted to a covered commodity, that base will fall in-line with the program choice for that commodity. For example, if soybeans are allocated to generic base in 2015 then the generic base will be follow the soybean program chosen (ARC or PLC). Then if corn were planted to the generic base in 2016, the generic base would follow the corn program chosen (ARC or PLC).

Late Monday evening (Jan 27) the conference committee of the U.S. House of Representative and the Senate finalized the Agricultural Act of 2014 putting the new farm bill on its path to approval. The House passed the bill today (Jan 29) by a vote of 251-166.  The Senate may vote tomorrow.  Much of the bill will go into effect in the near future.

As has been expected, the new legislation will abandon the long-standing direct payments. Also, the Average Crop Revenue Election and Counter-Cyclical programs that were introduced, respectively, in the 2008 and 2002 bills will transition to Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC). The marketing loan program will likely remain unchanged. Cotton will utilize its own program, Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX).

Producers and/or landowners will face many decisions with the new legislation. First, base acres could have the option to be reallocated and yields can be updated. Second, producers must choose either ARC or PLC for all non-cotton base. With the ARC program, producers will then have the option to choose coverage at their individual farm level or at the county level. The PLC option can be combined with a supplemental layer of coverage, called Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO). However, SCO can be added without opting into PLC, but SCO cannot be combined with ARC.

ARC will be delivered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and, again, will trigger at either the farm or county level, depending on the producer’s decision. The county and farm level ARC will both kick in when the farm’s revenue declines 14% from a pre-calculated benchmark revenue. The benchmark revenue, for both options, is the five-year Olympic average[1] yield times the five-year average marketing year price. The county-triggered program will be commodity specific, use county yields and will be paid on 85% of base acres. The farm-level program will aggregate across all program crops, use farm yields, and will be paid on 65% of a producer’s base acres.

The PLC program will also be delivered by FSA and looks very similar to the previous Counter-Cyclical program. Each commodity (corn, peanuts, long and medium grain rice, grain sorghum, soybeans, and wheat — not cotton) has a set reference price and when the market year average price for each individual commodity falls below the reference price, the program will trigger. The program covers 85% of a producer’s base acres.

The STAX plan for cotton will provide an area based level of protection (i.e., county level) and will be delivered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA). Cotton producers electing STAX must pay a premium (similar to crop insurance). Like ARC, the STAX program is revenue based and will kick in when county level cotton revenues decline 10% below a county level benchmark (which is the five-year Olympic average[1] yield times the crop insurance spring time price). The program will continue to cover revenue losses from 10% to 30% below the benchmark and, even though yield and price are county level, the acres stem from the producer’s individual election.

SCO is available as a stand-alone program or can be coupled with PLC. It requires a premium, much like insurance, and provides coverage when revenue losses are 14% below the county level benchmark and will continue to cover losses until crop insurance kicks in.

So, none of these are easily digestible and, once elected, must be maintained for the life of the bill (currently slated to be in place for five years). As a result, a number of important decisions will need to be made. We are currently building an in-depth program that will cover these and other issues that are in the bill. As noted, the Senate will follow shortly thereafter. Once a final piece of legislation is known, look for this educational program to begin.

[1] An olympic average drops the highest and lowest values over the given time period. So, a five-year olympic average will discard the highest and lowest values over the five-year period thus giving an average over the three middle years.

Post written by John Michael Riley and Keith Coble