06/16/08 Implementing the farm bill & 2008 loan rates

Farm and Ranch June 16, 2008 Now that most of the 2008 Farm Bill is law it is up to the USDA to implement it and farmers will be watching. Porter: "Be interesting to see how the final rollout of all those programs really comes down through congress and down through department heads at the local agencies to see how we roll all this new farm bill out to the farmers." That's Kevin Porter, President of the Oregon Wheat Growers League. The USDA has already taken its first actions under the new commodity title of the farm bill implementing and announcing marketing assistance loan and loan deficiency payment provisions. USDA also announced 2008 county loan rates for cereals, oilseeds and pulse crops. By law the national loan rates for wheat, barley and corn are the same as for 2007 with wheat at $2.75 a bushel, barley at a dollar-85 and corn at $1.95 and other oilseeds at $9.30 a hundredweight. County loan rates for wheat continue to be differentiated by class and they are now on the USDA's national Farm Service Agency website. USDA says the 2008 crop West Region dry pea loan rate is $6.58 per hundredweight and the West Region lentil loan rate is $14.23 per hundredweight. The department says there was insufficient reliable information to establish regional loan rates for small chickpeas so the national rate of $7.43 a hundredweight applies to all regions. Large chickpeas are not eligible for marketing assistance loans until the 2009 crop year. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Farm Service Agency (FSA) Web site http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=prsu&topic=lor