News

ACRE payments begin

The USDA has begun issuing about $420 million in 2009 Average Crop Revenue Election payments to producers enrolled in the ACRE program for several crops including wheat, corn, barley, dry peas, grain sorghum, lentils, oats, peanuts, soybeans, and upland cotton. The payments help protect farmers from revenue declines, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

ACRE payments go to producers who have hit revenue triggers for a commodity on both a state and farm basis. About 70 percent of the payments are expected to be issued to wheat growers and 23 percent to corn growers. Eighty percent of the payments go to producers in Oklahoma, Washington, Illinois, North and South Dakota and Idaho.

The agency has posted a list of state payment rates for the 2009 crops of barley, corn, dry peas, lentils, oats, peanuts, grain sorghum, soybeans, upland cotton and wheat.