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| Agri News Letters Making a point about Bush’s budget cutsI would like to make a point about President Bush's proposed budget cuts. One of his proposals includes allowing farmers to only collect loan deficiency payments (LDPs) on historic bases and historic yields. Keith Collins, USDA economist, estimates that 35 percent to 40 percent of 2004's crop would have been ineligible for loan rate protection if this proposal would have been implemented for the 2004 crop. If we use corn as an example, historic national base and yields are 81.6 million acres and 102.3 bushels per acre, multiplied together gives 8.347 billion bushels eligible for LDPs. The 2004 numbers have us at 79.7 million acres eligible for LDPs with an average yield of 160.4 bushels per acre, assuming acres cut for silage have the same average yield as those that were harvested for grain. This gives us 12.783 billion bushels eligible for LDPs in 2004. This gives us nearly 35 percent of the bushels produced would be ineligible for LDPs. Unfortunately the small farmers who need the loan rate protection the most will shoulder the majority of the cuts. We can accomplish the same budget savings by making any quantities of corn in excess of a set amount per farmer ineligible for LDPs. According to USDA data, to get to that 35 percent level we would have to set a level at about 50,000 bushels per farmer. Only about 10 percent of our nation's corn growers grow more than 50,000 bushels per year, according to the USDA. So all farmers could have the price protection on their first 50,000 bushels and any extra bushels that they chose to grow would be at the risk of the market. Under this proposal President Bush can achieve the budget savings he is looking for, we can protect the small farmer, and the government would not subsidize the conglomeration of farms. I believe it is not too late for us to choose how our rural landscape looks, and how many farmers are on the land. — Dave Serfling, Preston, MN Copyright 2004 Agri News
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