Opinion

Weather causes havoc for farmers

Thursday, October 25, 2007

No matter how you slice it, or what your perspective might be, this has been a tough year production-wise for most farm folks in this area.

The best prospect for a wheat crop in several years was struck by several nights of sub-freezing temperatures in April. The freeze also "clipped" the leaves off the fast-growing brome and fescue setting grazing prospects back several weeks.

We avoided drought through the spring and early summer - great! Right? But it was too wet to get crops timely planted, and then at the end of June it rained too much causing a great deal of flooding and badly damaging what was left of the wheat crop - including fields that did not go underwater.

Floods over - smooth sailing now, right? Guess what? A late summer drought showed up to hinder development of the late planted crops. Some areas have reported soybean fields that received only 1 to 1.5 inches of rain since planted in July.

Now that harvest time is upon us, there is some better news however. Commodity prices are higher than they have been in a long while making those 20 bushel per acre soybeans a better crop than when the price was half the current level like a few years back.

My point with these observations is that weather has been causing some havoc for farm businesses. Even though most of the 2007 events described above are not covered at this time, recent legislation did provide some Crop Disaster Program (CDP) coverage for 2005, 2006, or 2007 crops planted before February 28, 2007. USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Teresa Lasseter announced that eligible farmers who suffered quantity losses to their crops in recent years can now enroll in the Crop Disaster Program 2005-2007 (CDP) at local FSA service centers. FSA will announce and conduct sign-up for quality losses under CDP at a later time.

"Certain crop producers suffered major financial losses as the result of floods, tornados and other natural disasters during the last couple of years," said Lasseter. "This program will help many American farmers to maintain viable businesses so consumers at home and abroad have the food and fiber they need to survive."

Subject to final rules for the program, CDP provides benefits to farmers who suffered losses to the 2005-2007 crops from natural disasters and related conditions so long as the actual crop lost was planted or prevented from being planted before Feb. 28, 2007. Producers who incurred qualifying losses in 2005, 2006 or 2007 must choose ONLY ONE YEAR to receive benefits. Producers may apply for benefits for losses to multiple crops as long as the losses occurred in the same crop year.

Only producers who obtained crop insurance coverage or coverage under the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for the year of loss will be eligible for CDP benefits. Producers must have suffered quantity losses in excess of 35 percent to be eligible for CDP. The payment rate is set at 42 percent of the established price. (Coverage level = 65 percent of yield/42 percent of price). Assistance, together with any crop insurance or NAP payment received for the same crop and including the value of the crop production not lost, must not exceed 95 percent of the total value of the crop absent the disaster.

Since only crop insured fields will qualify, most of the information needed for this program is already on hand in our office for completion of CDP applications. Call ahead for an appointment to complete your CDP sign up.