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NCGA Unveils Farm Bill Calculator to Assist Growers
June
20, 2002
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sam Willett, NCGA, 202-628-7001
Mimi Ricketts, NCGA, 636-733-9004, ext. 112
(ST. LOUIS) June 20, 2002 -- The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)
has unveiled a Farm Bill Guide and Calculator, a tool growers can use
to take the guesswork out of figuring direct payments, countercyclical
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 Calculator, developed in cooperation with the Center for Agriculture
& Rural Development, producers can input their county loan rates
to get the big picture on their payments.
"The calculator
is a great tool for growers," said NCGA Public Policy Action Team
Chairman Ron Litterer. "It gives them the opportunity to sit down
and look at their operation. Due to the complexities of the farm bill,
growers need to be able to enter their own data and get the information
that applies directly to them."
Litterer noted the
NCGA is compiling a pocket-sized guide to the farm bill that will include
the calculator on a computer disk as a convenient tool for association
members. That guide and calculator will be mailed to all 32,000 NCGA
members later this month.
The Farm Bill calculator
can also be downloaded from www.ncga.com in either one zip file or in
three separate files. Once downloaded, farmers can input the specific
information from their operation and find out what benefits they will
receive.
Litterer, a grower
from Greene, Iowa, said not only is the calculator a handy tool, it's
easy to use. "It's not a complicated program at all. It's laid
out in a usable Excel spreadsheet format and allows most producers to
enter their data and get results quickly. For anyone who uses computers
on a fairly regular basis, it should be a snap."
# # #
The National Corn
Growers Association mission is to create and increase opportunities
for corn growers in a changing world and to enhance corn's profitability
and usage. NCGA represents more than 32,000 members, 25 affiliated state
corn grower organizations and hundreds of thousands of growers who contribute
to state checkoff programs.
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