FARMINGTON – Crop payments for corn, oat and soybean acreage in Franklin County that is enrolled in a federal farm program were released Thursday. So far, advance counter-cyclical payments to 35 agricultural producers have totaled $21,552.
Not everyone chooses to get advance payments, said Gary Raymond, executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency in Franklin County.
The advance payments help farmers buy seed, gas, fertilizer and other necessities for the upcoming planting season.
Counter-cyclical payments are available to producers who participate in the program authorized by the 2002 federal farm bill.
Producers are eligible for payments when effective prices are less than the target prices specified in the farm bill, Raymond said.
The effective price equals the direct payment rate plus the higher of the national average market price received by producers during the marketing year, or the national loan rate for the commodity, he said.
The 2002 farm bill allows producers to receive counter-cyclical payments in three installments:
• A first payment in October, up to 35 percent of the projected rate.
• A second in February, up to 70 percent of the total projected rate, less any amount received under the first payment.
• The final payment after the end of the marketing year, which is May 31 for oats and Aug. 31 for corn and soybeans.
Final payments will be determined after the end of the marketing year for each commodity.
More information on the program is available at Farm Service Agency offices and on the Internet at www.fsa.usda.gov.
Other crops involved in the program outside of Franklin County are wheat, grain sorghum, barley, upland cotton, rice and peanuts.
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