County loan rates announced; ACRE sign up begins

Farm and Ranch April 27, 2009 USDA has announced 2009 County loan rates for wheat, feedgrains and oilseeds. As required by the 2008 Farm Bill, the 2009 national loan rates are established at the same levels as those established for the 2008 crop. That is $2.75 a bushel for wheat. USDA calculates loan rates for wheat by class and for 2009 it appears that in the Pacific Northwest county loan rates for soft white wheat are 47 cents a bushel higher than for the 2008 crop. Today marks the beginning of the sign up period for the Average Crop Revenue Election program, or ACRE. Brent Orr of the Farm Service Agency describes the program created in the 2008 Farm Bill. Orr: "It is a new kind of revenue election. We have never had that before. Typically the Direct and Countercyclical program was based more on what producers historically grew on the farm. This revenue election pertains to what farmers are actually growing on the farm this year. Covered commodities that will be eligible for ACRE are wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, peanuts, soybeans, sunflower seed, canola, flaxseed, safflower, mustard seed, rape seed, sesame seed, crambe, dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas and large chickpeas." Sign up for ACRE will conclude on August 14th. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.