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Download our Farm Bill Calculator!

NCGA takes the guesswork out of figuring direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, marketing loan assistance and total program benefits for producers of corn, barley, cotton, oats, rice, sorghum, soybeans and wheat. By using NCGA’s Farm Bill Guide and Calculator, producers can even input their county loan rates to get the big picture on their payments.

To run the Farm Bill Calculator, save the three files below to the same folder/directory on your PC. To save these files to your PC in Internet Explorer, right-mouse click over each filename and choose "Save Target As". Be sure to remember where you saved the files. Then run the "Farm Bill Calculator 2002.exe file" on your PC. For your convenience, all three files are also available in a .zip file below.

Enhanced Version November 2002 - includes new oilseed information (11-5-2002) - NEW!

The new edition of the NCGA Farm Bill Calculator has been updated to reflect the most recent implementation rules set out by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the Direct and Countercyclical Payment Program. Two major changes have been made in the program with the assistance of the Center for Rural Development, Iowa State University. First, the yield used for the "yield plug" has been changed from a planted acre to a harvested acre basis (i.e., the program now uses 75 percent of your county's yield per harvested acre for the yield plug instead of 75 percent of your county's yield per planted acre). Second, the calculation of the maximum amount of eligible soybean acres has been changed to capture the modifications USDA made in October on the setting of oilseed base for the direct and counter-cyclical programs.

On October 1, USDA initiated the sign-up for Direct and Countercyclical Program crops. Producers have the opportunity to select one of five base options; Retain the 2002 PFC contract acres as the base, update all bases on the farm using 1998 - 2001 plantings and three options that allow a producer to add oilseeds to existing PFC acres. The revision by USDA could provide producers additional oilseed bases that more accurately reflect a producer's more recent cropping practices.

USDA's previous method of calculation used to determine oilseed bases when oilseeds were added to an existing 2002 Production Flexibility Contract (PFC) resulted in unintended disparities in the amount of oilseed bases that could be credit to farms. Farms that planted oilseeds in a 100 percent year to year corn/soybean rotation were at a disadvantage compared to farms that planted in a 50/50 corn/soybean rotation on the farm. With the release of the rule and regulations on the Direct and Counter Cyclical Payment Program on October 21, the Farm Service Agency also modified its computer software and farm bill calculator to reflect these changes.

Reminder: when dealing with lower price scenarios, you will want to not only to change the market price but also the posted county price. If you don't also change the pcp, market loan benefits will not show up on the calculator.

One file -

Farm Bill Calculator (Zip file - 1.7 Mb.)

OR

3 individual files -

Counties.csv (47 KB)
CountyData.csv (256 KB)
Farm Bill Calculator2002.exe (4.5 MB)

The Farm Bill Guide is available in PDF format. Click here to download the 2002 Farm Bill Guide

Click here for the Base and Yield Update Option Analyzer (BYA) available from the Farm Sevice Agency division of the USDA website.

If you do not have the free Adobe Acrobat 5.0 reader, you can download it HERE.



ST. LOUIS OFFICE


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Phone: (636) 733-9004
FAX: (636) 733-9005
122 C Street, N.W., Suite 510
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 628-7001
FAX: (202) 628-1933
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