Crop acreage changes since Freedom to Farm
Farm and Ranch July 23, 2010 The 1995 Freedom to Farm Act gave farmers the option to plant what they believed to be their most competitive crops and still participate in the federal farm program. That principle still underlies today’s farm bill law. At the University of Illinois Farm Management Specialist Gary Schnitkey has studied the changes in crops and acreages since Freedom to Farm and he says there are clear cut winners and losers. Schnitkey: “What we saw was is a movement to soybeans and corn and soybeans gained 14 millions from the early period to 2005 to 2009. Corn gained nine million. So those two crops were the only two crops that gained in acres. Hay and rice were stable but the big losers were wheat, barley and grain sorghum.” Schnitkey says corn silage, dry edible beans and potatoes also lost acreage. Acres harvested were averaged for the years 1990 through 1994, the years preceding passage of the 1995 Farm Bill, and then from 2005 through 2010. Soybeans saw acreage increase about 25 percent, corn increased 14 percent, while wheat had the larges acreage reduction, from 62.8 million acres to 50.7 million, down 19 percent. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.
